The Junior Order Six
by shamrock1787
Summary: AU Harry Potter and his friends train away from Hogwarts then must learn to live in the real world and fight dark forces. H/G For the most part it is a K story. There are some slivers of scenes that require a T rating. Enjoy!
1. Prologue

**A/N SO I had a good idea (at least I think so) for a story, but I've learned from my other stories that I tend to jump right into the action and then have nothing left for the plot, so I'm trying again. Hopefully, this time I can keep the ideas flowing for more than a few chapters. I'm also experimenting with writing longer chapters. Basically, I'm trying to become a better writer with this story, but all you have to worry about is whether you like it or not. Enjoy and review!**

**Some background:**

**Okay I need to make a few points, so you know what's going on. In order for my story to work, I needed to deviate from the canon some. First of all, and most importantly, the prophesy is the same, except it doesn't require Voldemort to mark his equal. So NO SCAR for Harry, and no Halloween night. The potters are alive. The longbottoms are fine. As you will see, Hermione's story is a pretty different as well. Just imagine that the only one the prophesy can speak of is Harry. Neville isn't a possibility.**

Prologue:

It was obvious to everyone from the beginning that Harry and Ginny were special. Lily had just put Harry down for the night before an order meeting was to begin at the Burrow. Molly Weasley had set up a few extra cribs in the nursery for the children of order members, specifically, her own two youngest Ron and Ginny, as well as Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, and Hermione Granger, who was born of muggle parents. This last child's story was a sad affair, as her parents were killed in a mass attack on a muggle community, and she had been taken in by her formerly estranged grandmother, on her father's side, who was a witch in the order.

This group of children found themselves together quite often during order meetings, but this was their first sleepover all together. Lily went to check on them partway through the meeting only to find Ginny's crib empty and her son snuggling with the displaced Weasley in his own crib. Confused, she carefully lifted Ginny from the crib, but upon being separated both she and Harry began crying, waking the others who, in turn, also began screaming. Lily put Ginny back into her own crib, shushing her desperately. Not a moment later the baby girl vanished in front of her and the crying immediately ceased. Lily turned around to find Ginny back in Harry's crib, both of them starting to settle back down again.

Now this wasn't the first time Harry had done magic, but that didn't stop Lily from running down the stairs calling for James.

Panicked at her shriek, James met her at the stairs with half the order behind him.

"Lily, honey, what's wrong?" James asked, his eyes searching around her for trouble.

"Are the children okay?!" Molly put in frantically.

"What's going on?!" Sirius yelled.

"Shush, Sirius. Everything is fine, I was just caught off guard by our son's magic." Lily explained. At this everyone relaxed and James wrapped an arm around Lily.

"So what's he done now Lils?" James asked as the crowd began dispersing.

"He summoned a girl into his crib." She said trying to hold back a smile at the reaction she knew to be coming. James grinned and seemed to shine with pride at his son's antics while Sirius barked out a laugh and slapped James on the shoulder.

"That's my Godson! Takes after me, he does!" Molly who hadn't left with the rest scowled at Sirius before turning to Lily.

"Which girl was it?" She asked simply.

"Ginny." Lily replied as she returned the blossoming smile on Molly's face at this pronouncement.

"Another redhead?" Sirius said in mock exasperation.

"That's my boy!" James said proudly giving Lily a squeeze. "A true Potter, through and through."

The Potters and Weasleys soon discovered that this was not a unique event. Every night following, Harry Potter would either summon Ginny to him or go to her. One or the other of the parents would wake to find either none or two babies in their crib in the morning. Luckily, Godric's Hollow was not very far from Ottery St. Catchpole.

Harry's sleeping arrangements were not the only strange thing the parents noticed however. During playdates, not only Ginny, but all the toddlers seemed to gravitate toward Harry. All the adults marveled at the natural leader he seemed to be and began calling the group of infants, the junior order, making a parallel between Harry and Dumbledore. The grandfatherly headmaster found his junior version all too amusing.

When Harry, Neville, Ron, and Hermione were two and Ginny and Luna one, Lily and Molly had volunteered to take them to a nearby park to play. The neighborhood was a mixture of muggle and magical families, so they were careful to look out for any accidental magic. One muggle boy about two or three years old had come up to Luna while she was playing in the sandbox and began pulling on her pigtails. Before either Lily or Molly could intervene to stop a potential magical accident from happening, Harry toddled up to the offending boy flanked by a crawling Ginny. Neville took Luna into the middle behind Harry and Ginny with Ron and Hermione on either side of them. Even a bully this young knows when he is outnumbered and should retreat. He scurried away quickly to find his mother. Lily and Molly watched on, astounded as the six converged around Luna and began playing by themselves. Even in their infancy the junior order radiated an unparalleled power and influence when together, with the center being Harry.


	2. The Training Program

Chapter 1:

James and Lily potter hurried through the hallways of Hogwarts Castle, eager to hear what had been so urgent that the Headmaster asked to see them immediately. At last they reached the stone gargoyle and gave the password: Snickers.

"Lily, James, please come in and have a seat." Albus welcomed them from his place behind his large oak desk. "I'm afraid I have some news which you must consider carefully." At their nods he continued. "As you will recall, last year we discussed a prophesy concerning Lord Voldemort and a possible hero for the light side." Again they nodded, but now appeared apprehensive. "After looking at all the possibilities, what it comes down to is that there is really only one. It's Harry." At this Lily broke down into sobs and James huddled her against his chest.

"Are you sure Albus?" James asked, trying to keep his own tears in check.

"Yes. The prophesy stated the young warrior would be born at the end of July, to parents that thrice defied the Dark Lord. Although Neville Longbottom should have been born around the same time, his late birth of August second eliminates his possibility. It is only Harry." James and Lily were silent. They refused to believe that there son needed to go up against such an evil man to save the wizarding world. It was absurd. He was just a baby.

"However, there is a line we must further contemplate given recent revelations." Dumbledore continued. "As I remember it was stated that although only the savior himself can defeat the Dark Lord, he will not stand alone at this fight. It spoke of him being surrounded by a pentagram assembly."

"What does that mean?" Lily asked finally getting her crying under control.

"If my interpretation is correct, I believe it speaks of our young following, the junior order." Lily gasped and looked up at her husband, whose facial expression resembled her own.

"What should we do?" James asked, a determined look coming over his handsome features. "If my boy has to do this, he sure as hell isn't going to go into anything unarmed."

"Of course not." Albus said, a twinkle returning to his eyes. "I assure you we will do everything possible to prepare young Harry and his friends. It is for this reason that I have scheduled to meet with the parents of the other children as well. Given the danger, I believe it would be a mistake to leave any of you vulnerable to attack. I am asking that perhaps for the next few years as the children grow up, you might be willing to move into Potter Manor with the other families. I realize it is an inconvenience, but it would ensure the safety of the children and their families as well as make their training easier when the time comes." James and Lily looked at each other seemingly having a private conversation, before Lily nodded and James turned to Dumbledore.

"Of course we would be happy to have the families stay at Potter Manor, there is plenty of room, however, if we are to be going into hiding in this way, might I request that Sirius and Remus stay with us as well?"

Dumbledore considered the request. Peter Pettigrew might have been on the list as well, had Sirius not slipped him veritaserum as part of a prank and inadvertently found out about his double life as a death eater. It was true that Potter Manor had plenty of room. The estate was really more of a compound with two large guest houses, a lake, a quidditch pitch, a small forest, and of course the large mansion itself. Having Remus and Sirius there, would certainly add to the security, not that it was particularly needed with the ancient wards in place that only a Potter could penetrate and accept guests into.

"Yes I believe that arrangement is acceptable." Dumbledore acquiesced. Before he could continue, Lily interrupted.

"Albus, I will not have Harry wasting his childhood on training alone. Of course he will need to be prepared to fight, but he's just a baby, I want him to enjoy the goodness of life as well." James smiled at his wife and nodded in agreement with her. Dumbledore smiled at the loving parents.

"I never meant to imply that Harry would become an unfeeling killing machine, in fact I believe having lots of love and happiness in his life will make him an even stronger opponent to Voldemort, as these are strengths that he can never know. I will offer my support and opinion when asked, but I recognize that as his parents, the final decision is yours." Dumbledore smiled to them.

Few knew, outside of James' family, and some select members of the order that Dumbledore was actually the brother of James Potter's Grandmother, making him a great uncle to both James and Harry, and Lily by default. In the pureblood lines, most were connected to each other in some way or another, but the Dumbledore family was particularly picky about marriage, which is why so few can count them among their relatives. Most, like Albus Dumbledore himself, never married. In fact the name would have died out ages ago, except that Dumbledores lived to a conspicuously old age.

"At least we have one advantage." Albus said, "Voldemort has not heard the prophesy. Unfortunately, I believe he knows that there has been one made about him, and will most likely do all he can to gain that information, but for now, you are as safe as anyone else standing against him."

The next night, five year old Harry Potter was jumping on the couch, hopped up on chocolate frogs Sirius had snuck him earlier.

"HARRY JAMES POTTER! Get off that couch this instant!" Lily yelled. "You know better than to jump on the furniture. And I told you ten minutes ago to go get changed before the others get here." Harry quickly got off the couch and pouted at his mother, a technique that always worked on his father, but only had a fifty-fifty chance with the fiery witch that was his mother.

"Do I have to, mummy?" Lily had told him to put on his pajamas.

"Yes, it's already after nine, now MARCH!" she said pointing up the stairs.

Soon the people started arriving. First to arrive were Alice and Frank with Neville. Neville was wearing blue footie pajamas and wore a scowl on his chubby little face. "Don't want to wear these!" He pouted as Frank set him down on the couch. Alice looked helplessly to Lily.

"He hates those pajamas, but his grandmother bought them for him and she's visiting right now. You know how she is." Lily nodded. She had met Augusta Longbottom a few times and each time she felt incredibly small next to the very intimidating woman in the vulture hat. She was a brilliant witch, but scary as all hell.

Harry came back down stairs then, in his snitch PJs and settled onto the couch next to Neville, where they began discussing the new training broom Harry had gotten, the Hinkypunk LX. He'd finally outgrown his Tiny Tot Terror that Sirius had gotten him on his first birthday, even though it was made for ages two to four. His new broom reached heights of eight feet and could get up to 25 miles per hour, a vast improvement on the two feet and five miles per hour of his last broom.

They were soon joined by Ron and Ginny when the Weasleys arrived. Molly and Arthur's oldest, sixteen year old, Bill, had come along to babysit, while the parents talked, leaving Charlie at home to watch the troublesome twins, Fred and George, and Percy.

"I dodged a bullet really." Bill said when relating this piece of news to Lily and James. "I'd rather watch these tikes twice over than spend anytime trying to keep the twins away from Percy."

"Mummy and Daddy wanted to get me the Princess Primary Broom!" Ginny was heard saying from across the room. "It's PINK! Besides it only goes up three feet." All the boys with her laughed.

"Well you wanted a Banshee, as if they'd really buy you that." Ron snickered, receiving a glare from his sister. "What? It's a ten foot flyer and goes 35, keep dreaming Ginny." Ginny huffed and walked over to the couch by Harry, where Neville scurried away to give her room to sit down. Harry patted her back gently.

"I'd get you the Banshee, Gin, but I only get two Galleons a week." Harry said softly. Lily and Molly both sighed happily as they watched the scene. James smirked and Arthur smiled at their children.

Finally, the last two groups arrived. Hermione and her Grandmother and Luna with her father, Oddment and her mother, Claire.

"Well we're just waiting for Dumbledore to arrive I suppose. I take it you've all met with him." Frank asked to the group of parents standing around the living room. Just as the affirmations were heard around the room, the front bell rang again and Albus Dumbledore appeared carrying a small black duffle bag.

"Well let's begin shall we?" Albus said going into the dining room as the others followed him.

"Just one moment Albus." Lily said turning to face the group of children by the fireplace. "Bill, please make sure they get to bed by 10:30. There are sleeping bags up in Harry's room for the boys and the room across the hall is for the girls. Don't worry about Ginny, there's nothing you can do about that. Trust me." She smiled then waved Harry over to her. "Harry, sweetie, be good for Bill, and do as he says, Mummy and Daddy are just in the other room, but we're talking with the grownups so please only come to us with an emergency, okay?" Harry nodded and dashed back to couch where Hermione and Ron were arguing over which movie to watch. They loved watching movies, and only the Potters had a television.

Lily entered the dining room and took the seat next to James. Albus was setting up what looked like a small chalkboard with lines on it, as if to map out a schedule of some sort. Just as she sat down, Albus turned to face them.

"Well now that we're all here, I will get straight to it. The Potters have graciously offered their manor estate in Wales for the use of this program, as you all know. Now, Emily, has decided not to stay, but will visit at Christmas. Her position outside is crucial in our information network, so she must sacrifice the time with her granddaughter, unfortunately." Everyone sent a sad smile to Emily Granger who appeared on the verge of tears. They couldn't imagine leaving any of their children for so many years. "Now James, would you care to inform us how the living arrangements will be set up?" Dumbledore asked sitting down, and turning everyone's attention over to James, who stood up and smiled at all of his friends around him.

"Alright, I know this is going to be difficult. We may be stuck together for a decade if everything goes to plan, and that limits our privacy and independence. Also, along with all of us, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin will be staying with us to help protect and tutor the children. We currently have two large guest houses and the manor itself on the property. Unfortunately, our construction abilities are limited do to the wards on the estate, but I have managed to make one of the houses into a duplex of sorts. The Lovegoods and Longbottoms will each have half of the house with their own bedrooms, kitchen, bathrooms, etcetera. The other house we have left as it is for the Weasleys. Now the weasleys are a particularly difficult case because they will have three children in Hogwarts this fall. The wards make it difficult for anyone to come or go, besides the house elves who will be doing the shopping for us. For this reason, Bill, Charlie, and Percy will only be able to come home during the summers." Molly frowned at this, but could not say anything, as the Potter's hospitality was already above and beyond her wildest imagination.

James continued, "As for Sirius and Remus, they'll be staying in the manor with us. Although, the children will all have rooms at home with their families, we'd like them to each have a room at the manor as well, just for convenience sake. I think that's about it, Albus…"

"Right, well now that we all understand the situation a little better, let me just add on, that once you enter the estate, it will be difficult for anyone to visit, including me. Therefore, I have arranged a schedule and brought along some materials as well as a list of needed equipment." He lifted up the black bag, they had all seen earlier. "This bag contains that list as well as some books from my personal study and a few notes on the schedule I've set up for the children's learning. Of course it is up to you to abide by the schedule, or make changes when necessary. I will only visit once a year along with Emily to check in and make sure everyone is okay."

"Albus, are we to understand that you have scheduled the next ten years of study for the children?" Alice asked, surprised at the lengths the headmaster went to.

"Why yes, as well as who I believe would be best to teach each thing. As it is, you have an exceptional group among yourselves. Molly has training as a healer and is excellent with charms work, Lily is particularly gifted at potions and Charms. James, Sirius, and Remus are all exceptional at transfiguration and defense. Alice and Frank are also top aurors and individually excel at Herbology and Astronomy. Claire Lovegood is gifted at both ancient runes and arithmany. Oddment is a specialist in both known and unknown magical creatures as well as ancient runes. Finally Arthur was a top student in History of Magic, and is well versed in the Ministry of Magic and its laws. You are all incredibly gifted and I expect that between you all, these children will be the best educated of their generation. Now without further ado, allow me to introduce what I believe is the most productive schedule."

_Year One (ages 5-6)_

_Physical Education and Fitness_

_History of Magic I_

_Elementary Education of Mathematics and Language I_

_Magical Theory I_

_Team Work Configurations and Strategies _

_Year Two (ages 6-7)_

_Physical Fitness and Conditioning_

_History of Magic II_

_Elementary Education II_

_Magical Theory II_

_Movement and Physical Defense I_

_Care of Magical Creatures I_

_Herbology I_

_Year Three (ages 7-8)_

_Physical Fitness and Conditioning_

_History of Magic III_

_Elementary Education III_

_Transfiguration Theory I_

_Movement and Physical Defense II_

_Care of Magical Creatures II_

_Introductory Ancient Runes _

_Introductory Potions_

_Herbology II_

_Year Four (ages 8-9)_

_Physical Fitness and Conditioning_

_Elementary Education IV_

_Transfiguration Theory II_

_Movement and Physical Defense III_

_Care of Magical Creatures III_

_Intermediate Ancient Runes I_

_Intermediate Potions I_

_Charms Theory I_

_Healing I_

_Tactical Training and Strategy I_

_Herbology III_

_Year Five (ages 9-10)_

_Physical Fitness and Conditioning_

_Transfiguration Theory III_

_Movement and Physical Defense IV_

_Defense against Dangerous Creatures_

_Intermediate Ancient Runes II_

_Intermediate Potions II_

_Charms Theory II_

_Healing II_

_Tactical Training and Strategy II_

_Introductory Arithmancy Theory_

_Hex and Curse Theory_

_Year Six (ages 10-11)_

_Physical Fitness and Conditioning_

_Transfiguration Applications I_

_Movement and Physical Defense V_

_Intermediate Ancient Runes III_

_Intermediate Potions III_

_Charms Applications I_

_Healing III_

_Tactical Training and Strategy III_

_Intermediate Arithmancy Theory I_

_Application and Defense of Curses and Hexes I_

_Year Seven (ages 11-12)_

_Physical Fitness and Conditioning_

_Transfiguration Applications II_

_Movement and Physical Defense VI_

_Intermediate Ancient Runes IV_

_Intermediate Potions IV_

_Charms Applications II_

_Magical Ministry and Politics I_

_Tactical Training and Strategy IV_

_Intermediate Arithmancy Theory II_

_Application and Defense of Curses and Hexes II_

_Year Eight (ages 12-13)_

_Physical Fitness and Conditioning_

_Transfiguration Applications III_

_Movement and Physical Defense VII_

_Advanced Ancient Runes and Wards I_

_Advanced Potions I_

_Charms Applications III_

_Magical Ministry and Politics II_

_Tactical Training and Strategy V_

_Intermediate Arithmancy Theory III_

_Application and Defense of Curses and Hexes III_

_Year Nine (ages 13-14)_

_Physical Fitness and Conditioning_

_Advanced Transfiguration I_

_Movement and Physical Defense VIII_

_Advanced Ancient Runes and Wards II_

_Advanced Potions II_

_Advanced Charms I_

_Magical Ministry and Politics III_

_Tactical Training and Strategy VI_

_Advanced Practical Arithmancy I_

_Application and Defense of Curses and Hexes IV_

_Year Ten (14-15)_

_Physical Fitness and Conditioning_

_Advanced Transfiguration II_

_Movement and Physical Defense IX_

_Advanced Ancient Runes and Wards III_

_Advanced Potions III_

_Advanced Charms II_

_Tactical Training and Strategy VII_

_Advanced Practical Arithmancy II_

_Application and Defense of Curses and Hexes V_

_Independent Study_

"I don't understand, what's this movement and physical defense and is that much physical fitness necessary?" Molly asked as she looked over the outline. It was James however that answered her question.

"Magic is stronger if the body is healthy, hence the physical fitness. The Movement and Defense class was actually mine and Lily's idea. When I was young my bestfriend was a muggle who did martial arts. It looked fun and I wanted to try, so I begged my parents to take lessons. I studied from ages five until I went to Hogwarts and over the summers. I can tell you that it has enhanced my dodging abilities tremendously. Also, I've used the techniques countless times in scrapes and it almost always catches the opponent off guard, because they expect magical offensive maneuvers." James continued to explain what this training would specifically entail, and while some of the parents seemed uneasy, most accepted its usefulness.

"How will they do magic outside of Hogwarts?" Lily asked, having not heard anything on the matter in their meeting with Dumbledore. At her question the others nodded and looked to Dumbledore.

"That is one of the best parts of the manor, that I don't believe even James knows, as his parents were quite strict about the underage magic law." James looked at Dumbledore questioningly. "The wards prevent the identification of magic from an outside source. The only problem I foresee is that their magical cores will not be sufficiently grown until the age of ten or eleven. Having them attempt to do focused magic before hand could injure their core. For that reason I have not given them any practical courses which require the use of a wand until after they have all reached the age of ten. In my bag I have provided generic training wands that should work until we can make a special trip for wand fittings."

Alice and Frank were in a quiet discussion for a minute before Alice asked, "What happens afterwards?" It was a question they had all been wondering, but it seemed so far in the future, most of them had swept it aside. "And what about Exams?" She added.

"Both excellent questions. First, to your concern about the exams. As headmaster, I am qualified to administer the OWLs and will do so when I make my annual visit in year nine. If the curriculum that I have included in the bag is followed, they will be more than ready to take the exams then. You will find topics, reference materials, and ideas for activities included in the curriculum packets. I want you all to realize, that this opportunity affords these pupils a unique opportunity of learning. You can teach them in ways that the classroom structure doesn't allow for, please take advantage of it in order to make the lessons not only bareable, but hopefully enjoyable for all concerned. To your second question, I say, the training is necessary, but it must be applied outside of a bubble."


	3. Living and Learning at Potter Manor

Chapter 2

"Mum, why do we have to stay here and do math while Ickle-ronnikins and

Gin-Gin get to have fun outside?" Fred complained.

September first had come and gone and everyone had moved onto the Potter Estate. The kids were estatic as only five and six year olds can be when they get to do something special. Right now they were having their teamwork lesson outside.

"They are having lessons, now hush and finish your worksheet." Molly scolded.

"Doesn't look like lessons." George muttered before flicking a crinkled scrap of paper at his brother across the table. The twins hadn't taken to the move as well as the others had. Their lessons remained the same, and they hadn't brought any friends with them, like the others had. At least it was only a year for them, Molly thought.

"Okay boys, if you finish your worksheets you can go have a fly about before dinner." Molly stated watching as grins immediately split the faces of her boys. They immediately set to work.

Meanwhile in the yard Harry, Ginny, and Luna were playing capture the flag against Ron, Neville, and Hermione. The catch was that all six kids had been placed under a silencing charm leaving them no voice to communicate with their teammates. Sirius and Remus were directing the lesson, but Sirius was mostly heckling.

"Come on now, figure it out, it's not that hard."

Harry was hiding behind a bush at the boundary line to the other teams side. From his position he could see Ginny five meters away behind a tree. He held up his fingers to her making an L and shrugged. With three fingers she pointed to the other side of the tree. During the two minute preparation period they had discussed this meaning three meters in that direction. Harry peeked over the tree and saw a flash of red hair run to behind another tree. He made an O with his left hand and then held up one finger. Meaning one opposition visible. Ginny signaled the same message to Luna on her other side. Ginny turned back to Harry making an L with her hand then swirling her finger. Luna is going to distract. A moment later, Harry heard Luna screaming and running towards a spot just a few meters to the right of where the flag was. Red and brown hair flashed in her direction and Harry gave Ginny the signal to go. They both sprinted out of their places towards the flag. Neville was guarding it, and managed to tag Harry, but left the flag open to Ginny in the mean time. By the time Neville had turned around, Ginny was already ten meters away and sprinting back to her side.

"Alright kids, bring it in." Remus called out using a sonorous charm. They all gathered around, Harry, Ginny, and Luna giving each other hugs. Ron gave Hermione a hug while Neville patted her on the back. "Okay, now don't be sad that you lost. Instead try and learn from it and figure out a way to do better next time." Remus said and Hermione and the others let small smiles back onto their faces.

"Right then, let's compare strategies. Well who wants to start." Sirius asked. They all glared at him. "Oh the silence charms. Sorry pups, here you go…" Sirius flicked his wand and released them from the charm. "Now, go ahead, Harry why don't you say what your team did, and then Ron can say what his team did." Harry started.

"Well we decided to take an aggressive approach." Sirius smirked at his vocabulary. The boy spends far too much time with his mother and Hermione. "We made up some hand signals so we could communicate and then just waited for the right moment to set our plan into action. Luna distracted while Ginny and I made a play for the flag." Harry smiled at his teammates happy with their victory.

"It was a well earned victory green team, however, it was not without flaws." Remus stated. The three teammates frowned at the criticism. "Now don't look at me like that, this is a lesson, if you didn't learn from it, it wouldn't be any good. Now your communication techniques and strategy were sound for the most part. However, it also left your flag entirely defenseless and limited your opportunities for success to one. If only Ron had chased Luna and Hermione and Neville were guarding the flag, you would have been completely out of the game. Understand?" The three nodded thoughtfully.

Then Ron stepped forward, "We knew that we didn't have a lot of speed on our team, so we decided to play it safe and just wait out the attack and try to put the numbers in our favor. We each took a defensive position. We planned out everything beforehand so that we wouldn't need to communicate." Ron said, looking back to his teammates who nodded. Sirius decided to take this one.

"Okay, now even though you lost, you did some things well. First you evaluated your strengths and weaknesses and created a plan that would work best for your group. Second, you put up a good defense. Now, there are some things you need to work on. For one thing, War is a two way road. You can't only defend. Just like you can't only attack. You need to find a balance that keeps you safe while still being productive towards the ultimate goal. Here was another problem. While it was smart to consider that you wouldn't be able to talk and make arrangements beforehand, things can change in a second. Some way of communicating with your team is important to pass on new information and changes in strategy. If you had some way to communicate, you might have been able to signal Hermione back to base to help protect the flag when you saw that it was only Luna and her threat to the flag was minimal." Sirius looked around at their young faces, but saw only motivation where he expected confusion.

"Alright, lessons over, it's free time until dinner, go ahead." Remus pronounced to shouts of glee and six children running back towards the house.

Later that evening, before bed, the children were having a magical theory lesson with Claire Lovegood. She was teaching them meditation.

"Alright now, reach inside yourselves. Search for that place where your magic builds from. Can you feel it?" She asked in a quiet voice. The six children were sitting around her in a circle cross legged with their eyes closed. "It's where your power stems from. Imagine a big pool filled with rainbow colors. Once you find it, dive in. Explore your magical core." James snickered on the couch and Lily cuffed him on his head shushing him. Claire opened one eye to peak at them and fought the urge to smile. She knew that it seemed a little loopy, but it would help them get in touch with their magic, and if nothing else, it calmed them before bed. In fact…

*Thunk* Neville Fell backwards onto the floor snoring. "I think it's time for bed.," Claire stated. "They all seem quite tired after today, perhaps they should just stay here for the night." She suggested as Luna began to lean against her side.

As the years passed, everyone began to feel more comfortable. It was like one large family. The Weasley kids often commented when they came home on the difference they saw in their younger siblings and parents. It was now about half way through the fifth year and the schedule continued as planned. Right now, all of the kids were out for their morning run and would soon be back to take the kickboxing class James had set up for them. James, Sirius, Remus, and Frank had taken to running with the kids in the morning and consequently were in the best shape of their lives. James was just returning and ushering Harry and the others up to the gym when Lily called him over.

"What's up Lils?" He asked, still panting slightly from the run.

"It's about Harry and Ginny. I know we have ignored it until now because they can't sleep apart, but I'm worried. They are getting to that age where they are going to start changing. I don't think it's appropriate for them to share a bed anymore." Lily said sadly. She knew her son and surrogate daughter wouldn't take the news well. They'd slept in the same bed for almost their whole lives, despite several attempts over the years to separate them.

"I know, Lily, but I don't know what to do. We've tried everything. It's like they're magnets or something." James said running a hand through his hair. "I thought that once he had more control over his magic, he would lose that ability. But now I'm not so sure it was ever accidental magic. The other day I saw him summon Ginny to his side on the couch when she was in the kitchen!"

"It's only with Ginny. I just don't understand. What should we do?" Lily asked a little exasperated by the problem.

"I'll talk to him Lils. He's the one doing it, so he can stop it as well. I just have to make him understand." James stated before heading off to the gym.

After dinner that night James took Harry aside. "Son we need to discuss this sleep situation of yours."

"Why dad? Is something wrong?" Harry asked innocently. He had been told before to cut it out, but refused to listen.

"Alright look Harry, this needs to stop. You're starting to get to an age where having a girl in your bed just isn't proper."

"Why?"

"Because boys have certain urges when they become older and being that close to a girl you care about in private can lead to inappropriate behaviors with that girl." There, closed case, James thought.

"But it's Ginny. I've known her forever." Harry asked confused.

"Yes Harry you've known her as a little girl, but soon she'll start becoming a young lady and you a young man. Okay, I didn't want to do this right now, but I think you need to hear it. Alright Harry, it's like this, there are wands and holsters…"

Despite the discussion Harry still found his best-friend in his bed that night.

"Ginny?" He asked sleepily.

"mhmm"

"My dad said that we shouldn't sleep together anymore cause soon we'll be older and if we do we'll end up making babies together." Harry stated casually. Ginny shot up in the bed and stared at Harry in disbelief.

"Why would we do that? We haven't made any babies so far?" She asked.

"Don't know, but Dad said boys have wands and girls have holsters and if a wand goes in the holster, it makes a baby." Ginny thought about this for a minute.

"Harry, do you suppose the wand is the thingy hanging between your legs?" Ginny and Harry had seen each other naked over the years both in curiosity and when bathing while young. In fact they had seen the others as well and figured out that boys had a different part than girls did. However, Harry had thought his dad was speaking about actual wands and holsters and was therefore confused how that had anything to do with sharing a bed with Ginny. Ginny was very smart for her age, and had six older brothers. She had heard the thing boys had referred to as a wand before.

"I don't know. I never thought about it that way." Harry confessed. "If the wand's on me, then where's your holster?" He pondered. At his tender age of ten he was not even remotely fazed when Ginny jumped out of bed and took off her nightgown, prodding herself all over trying to discover a hidden holster.

"Where is it?" She said to herself. Then she stuck her finger in her belly button and looked at Harry, "Do you think this is it?" She asked. Harry looked at her and then he also got out of bed, removing his pajama pants and shirt.

"Let's find out." He said. Ginny nodded and went over to stand by him. She bent down a little so that Harry could place his boyish instrument into her belly button. When nothing happened she stood up again. "Guess that wasn't it." Harry said, "I don't see any babies."

"Here try this one" Ginny said getting down on her knees and opening her mouth. Harry placed himself inside for a minute. It felt warm, and he liked it, but still nothing happened. After trying her ear as well, the two children gave up and put their pajamas back on before getting into bed.

"Harry please don't leave me." Ginny said curling back into him. "I can't sleep alone. I'm scared. And I'd…I'd miss you." She admitted quietly. Harry pulled her closer to him.

"Don't worry Gin, I won't leave you alone. I need you with me too." Harry whispered back before both fell asleep. So they continued sleeping together with no one the wiser.

Even with just his generic wand Harry was clearly strong magically. Fourteen months to the day after he and Ginny had decided they would not separate; they were in Transfiguration when Harry and Ron got into a fight over quidditch. This wasn't particularly unusal as Ron supported the Chudley Cannons and Harry was a fan of the Pride of Portree, but Harry took it particularly hard because he was already having a bad day and Ron's poke about Portree's seeker got to Harry more than it should have.

He could feel the magic in his core starting to spread and he clenched his fists to stay in control of it, but his emotions were a wreck and he couldn't concentrate. Soon bursts of raw magic broke out hitting the walls and knocking things down. Ron and Neville had to hit the floor quickly to dodge a beam of light shot right at them. James and Lily were trying to reach Harry, but were held at bay by the flying magic. Hermione was right next to Harry but her words did little to halt his explosive magic. Ginny crawled under the flashing lights and stood up straight before Harry placing a hand on his cheek.

"Harry, look at me, focus Harry, come on. Come back to me. Come back," Ginny pleaded, now putting both hands on his face. Harry slowly began to relax and the magic release stopped. "That's good Harry, just relax, it's okay."

"Gin?" Harry said slowly opening his eyes.

"That's right Harry, I'm here, right here." She said keeping eye contact with him until his tremors stopped.

"Gin I'm so sorry, I couldn't help it. I tried to stop it, but it just kept building…"

"Shhh, Harry, it's okay, everyone's fine." Harry let his head fall on to Ginny's shoulder and she moved to rub his back observing all of the people openly staring at them. James and Sirius began to set things right again, while Lily moved into the kitchen and returned with a glass of water for Harry.

"Thanks mum." Harry murmured as he took the glass.

"Harry, why don't you go lie down. You look pretty worn out." Ginny said, gently releasing Harry to Lily who led him to the stairs.

"Yeah Gin, you're right. Thanks." He said before beginning to climb. When Ginny turned back around she found Neville, Ron, Hermione, and Luna looking at her.

"Well come on, just cause Harry's gone doesn't mean we can't continue. Ron, you go ahead and pair with Neville." Ginny commanded taking her place in the seat Harry left.

As the children got back to work, Arthur, James, and Remus watched on quietly from a distance as Sirius helped them with their transfigurations.

"I've never seen anything like this. Did you see how they just looked lost when Harry left and then immediately looked to Ginny for what to do?" Remus asked.

"Yes, I've noticed that Harry tends to take the lead in things. Even if he is running late, the others always wait for him and won't start until he does. It's the darndest thing." Arthur commented.

"And even though she's younger, it appears the group looks to Ginny as second in command. I'm truly surprised that Ron didn't put up any fuss when his little sister took the reins." James added. Frank and Alice joined the group just as James was commenting on Ginny's status.

"It's really no wonder that they look to them as natural leaders. Even I can feel the power radiating off Harry and he isn't even fully developed yet, much less using a good wand. And Ginny, well she's Harry's leader and follower all at the same time. She's his anchor, did you see how she calmed him down when no one else could?" Alice stated. Frank nodding in agreement.

"It's true, in fact, I've noticed that Harry only goes through the motions with the wand, but even when he gets the movement or incantation wrong, it still seems to work. It's as if he is willing it to be so." Frank said. James pondered this. He also had noticed this peculiar pattern of Harry's. Occasionally, Harry would even just make up a wand movement if he forgot it and it still worked.

"Wandless magic?" Remus asked amazed.

"Wandless, non-verbal magic." James corrected. "He rarely uses incantations outside of class. Perhaps Albus can shed some light on this phenomenon." Everyone agreed as they continued to watch the students work.

Their Eighth year brought new problems and on a day off the six went down to the lake for a swim. The estate was at a constant temperature, keeping it warm all year round, except for Christmas Day when it snowed. Harry and Ginny were dangling their feet off the dock watching their friends play chicken, with Hermione on Ron's shoulders and Luna on Neville's.

"Ginny, can I ask you something?" Harry asked quietly. Ginny quirked an eyebrow at his shyness. Harry Potter was very rarely shy and never around her. The problem was that very recently Harry had taken an interest in Ginny's body in a new way. It was causing turmoil within him, and he needed his best-friend to help him out even if she was the cause.

"Of course Harry. You know you can ask me anything." Ginny said trying not to laugh at the blush taking over Harry's face.

"I…umm, well I just wanted to tell you that you look really nice." Harry stuttered. Ginny giggled.

"Thanks Harry, but that's not a question."

"Right well, I was thinking. Do you remember what we talked about the other night?" Now Harry's face was burning and Ginny's was starting to become rosy as well. The other night they had discussed the fact that since they were stuck on the estate, neither of them had any dating prospects and they wondered if they would ever get their first kiss.

"I…I…I remember." This time it was Ginny's turn to stutter.

"Well I was thinking, that even if we weren't stuck here, I think I…I think I'd want my first kiss to be with you." Harry choked out. Ginny's breath caught in her throat when she looked up to see emerald orbs flashing at her in a way she'd never seen before. He looked shy and uncertain, as well as determined, but most of all she saw desire in his eyes. Want. It was a little scary at first, but soon she discovered that his gaze gave her a warm feeling from her toes, up her spine and to her face which she was sure was now beet red.

"me too." She squeaked out, cursing herself for her lack of eloquence. Suddenly they were both splashed with a wave of water and looked up to find their four friends grinning like Cheshire Cats.

"Go on mate, just kiss her already!" Neville cheered. Harry looked to Ron who just gave a small nod of acknowledgment. After all, it wasn't as if everyone hadn't seen this coming for years. So leaning in slowly, Harry gently touched his lips to hers. Before he could pull back, Ginny wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her lips against his harder. Harry felt his happiness overflow, what he didn't know what that he was literally glowing with glee. A bright white light surrounded the couple and only faded a few seconds after they had broken apart. Ginny leaned her forehead against Harry's and whispered just for him. "Why don't we discuss this tonight." With that she rose, pulling off her t-shirt covering and dove into the water leaving a stunned and frozen Harry on the dock sputtering nonsense.

"Oi, mate, what she do? Suck your brains out?" Ron called, receiving a smack from both Hermione and Luna.

Before they knew it, Dumbledore was arriving to administer the OWLs. The old wizard found it quite humorous that it was not the students, but their parents that were nervously pacing and unable to eat anything. Just as he suspected, they all passed with Outstandings. In fact, they were probably the fastest taken OWLs ever.

At dinner that night Dumbledore had asked to see how their battlefield training was coming. James and Sirius smirked at each other, but Remus suggested a demonstration the following morning. So at a little before noon the following day the six were preparing for battle in their matching black attire and sitting in a meditation circle to focus their magic. On the other side of the field were Molly and Arthur, James and Lily, Remus, Sirius, Frank and Alice, Oddment and Claire, Dumbledore, and all of the older Weasley siblings who were home for the holidays. Dumbledore watched in fascination as the group of children before him opened their eyes and looked at one another as if communicating through their eyes. Then all of them nodded to each other and rose to face the mass of people waiting for them.

Remus came to the middle. "Alright, here's how this is going to work. It's going to be all of us versus them. The first person to safely incapacitate all of their opponents wins. Dumbledore will not be participating. Now, you may use any defensive measures you want, but you may only use stunners, minor hexes, body binds and the incarcerous hex offensively. This will limit the injuries. Any questions?" Bill raised his hand.

"Doesn't that seem a bit unfair. I mean it's six against fifteen. Perhaps some people should sit out."

Sirius smirked and turned to Bill, "Well we really should have two of them sit out, but Dumbledore wants to see them all working together." James snorted.

"Trust us, they don't need any help, just give them all you got." Remus added letting a smile escape. "Now Harry, give us a few minutes to discuss." Harry nodded but did not speak. Instead he just stared straight ahead. Harry could feel the others' energies around him. After having spent so much time recognizing magic and being around each other they all could feel where the others were, within a certain boundary. In fact, Harry could even feel a slight nervousness in Neville. Turning around he gave the boy a firm look, not in a mean way, but simply in a "Focus, we're doing this" way.

Soon Dumbledore had taken a seat near the house where he would be safe from most of the stray curses, and the opponents turned to face the six. Harry could feel his magic growing in him, anxious to be used. The others felt it to. Ginny shot him a look, just as he had done to Neville. He forced his magic back under control.

"Ready?" Remus called from across the field. Harry raised an arm to signal they were ready and it began. Immediately the enemy, as Harry thought of them, moved apart, splitting into smaller groups that could attack from various sides. Harry moved his arms slightly from his sides and Ron and Luna moved to flank his left, while Neville and Hermione moved to Ginny's right. They were in a semi-circle when the first curses flew towards them. Immediately Hermione, Ginny and Ron threw up shields protecting them and their partners while the other three launched a quick series of curses back at their opponents. Four went down. Then they switched shielders and cursers and another three went down.

"Ruby Formation!" Harry called out. Immediately, all three sets of partners converged and Ginny squeezed into the middle of the other five. The others spread their legs shoulder length apart and erected a dome of overlapping shields. Nothing could get through while at the same time Ginny was firing off curses at the enemy from between the others' legs. When only James, Sirius, Remus, Bill, and Frank remained, they moved to a more direct approach. James and Sirius ran at the formation dodging curses as they went while Remus, Bill and Frank sent continuous stunners at the six as cover for their friends.

"Break! Absorption Fold!" Harry called out. Ron, Hermione, Neville and Luna moved into a line to close off James and Sirius from their teammates after they had bowled through and began physical attacks on Harry and Ginny. They began the alternating shield and curse maneuver on the remaining three in front of them. Meanwhile, James was having difficulty blocking Harry's kicks while still trying to dodge the stunners coming from his son's hands. Ginny had just landed a kick to Sirius's chest sending him back a few feet, when Harry yelled, "Mine" and used his spare hand to send a stunner to the temporarily confused Sirius. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw Ginny motion to him, he backed up away from her, leading his father into the space between them where Ginny was able to shoot stunners at him from behind while he attempted to fight off Harry's blows and stunners in the front as well. Soon enough, one caught him and he went down. Harry and Ginny looked up to find themselves in a solid square between their four comrades. Harry assessed the area, noting that all the opponents were down he called out, "Assemble!" Ginny and the other four quickly amassed by Harry.

"Brilliant, absolutely marvelous. Well done." Dumbledore called as he came over to the group, clapping and grinning madly.

"Thank you, Uncle Albus." Harry said, moving to greet the professor. Behind him Ginny was directing the others to help her revive their parents and siblings. Albus put an arm around Harry's shoulder and walked a short distance away from the others.

"You have proven yourself a capable leader Harry, and I have no doubts that in your team you could take on numbers four times your size. However, I am curious as to your own personal training. How well do you fare alone?" Harry grinned.

"Quite well. We have lately been taking turns practicing individually against multiple opponents. I've succeeded at four and I'm working on taking on five at a time." Harry stated proudly.

"That's excellent news, my boy, excellent news. After all, our confrontations are not always so formal as a battlefield." Harry nodded.

"So Albus, what did you think of our young force here?" James inquired coming up to the pair with most of the others.

"Superb. I see that they have been taught well. I should hope that you all continue to study hard this next year."

"It's hard not to when your teachers are always around." Ron said smiling.

"Yes, well, I believe a day off is in order. Perhaps a friendly quidditch game. I hear there is some talent among the young people here." Dumbledore suggested smiling.

"Don't forget about us old people either." Sirius laughed as he raced off like a child to get the brooms, Ron and the twins on his heels. While they waited for the others to return, Dumbledore once again turned to Harry.

"I've noticed that you are still using the generic wand, did you not attend the trip a few years ago when the others picked up their new wands?" He asked the young boy who was nearly as tall as him now.

"No I went, and I have a new wand, but I prefer not to use it. It's harder to keep the magic from being absorbed into it, than this weaker generic model." Harry said, shrugging. Albus was surprised by his answer to say the least.

"Harry! That's what a wand is meant to do! It's supposed to absorb your magic!" He exclaimed.

"Yes well I feel it limits my magic output. You see, magic can flow more freely through my hands. If I use a wand, it's like a traffic jam because the magic is trying to shove itself through the wand, but there's only so much room." Harry explained to a bemused and baffled headmaster. Before they could discuss things further the others returned with their arms full of brooms.

"Right then, let's have Harry, Ginny, Neville, Remus and the twins versus Bill, Charlie, Me, James, Ron, and Frank." Sirius announced as he dragged the quidditch balls out of the shed. "To the pitch!" He cheered, levitating the ball trunk behind him.

"You're the only girl Gin?" Bill teased, smirking at his little sister. She just shrugged and ran to catch up with Harry. Frank came up next to Bill and patted him on the shoulder.

"Watch out for her, she's a fiery one." Then laughing he joined James and Remus as they walked on to the pitch, just to the side of the lake.


	4. Welcome to the Real World

Chapter 3

"Harry, I'm worried."

"About what Gin? We already know everything they are going to teach us there." Harry said, trying to comfort his girlfriend. They were lying in his bed the day before they were supposed to leave for Hogwarts.

"I'm not worried about classes Harry" she sighed, "I'm worried about the other people. We've lived isolated for so long in our safe little bubble. I feel like they are just throwing us out into the world."

"Well you'll still have us Gin, me especially. I'll protect you." Harry smirked and kissed her on the nose. She tried to hide her smile. "Don't worry baby, it'll be different but, we'll get through it together. Besides no one can touch you; you're my little tiger." Harry smiled and Ginny laughed. They had just perfected their animagus forms last March. Ginny was a bangle tiger, while Harry was a black panther. Ron was a German Sheppard, Hermione was an owl, Neville was an Eagle, and Luna a rabbit. They were quite the collection altogether. Sirius had been trying to give them all marauder names since then, but had failed miserably, especially when Lily explained to Molly and Alice who the marauders were.

"I love you Harry, goodnight." Ginny said before giving him a quick kiss and snuggling into him.

"Goodnight, love." Harry whispered in her ear before giving her a soft kiss behind her ear.

The next morning Harry was wrestling with Ginny in the living room, both in their animagus forms. Harry knew that it allowed Ginny to relax and simplify her mind for a short time.

"Watch those paws young man!" Lily called out to them as she carried a bag down the stairs. Harry had just pinned Ginny with his paws on her chest. Both cats scrambled to right themselves and turned back. Harry was deep red, while Ginny just looked at her boyfriend amused.

"It's okay Harry, you know I don't mind." Ginny purred in his ear.

"Ginnnnny" Harry whined quietly to her. "You know what that does to me." Ginny just smiled and gave Harry a wink before walking over to the now assembled group.

"Okay everyone. Today is the day." James said with a smile. Sirius whooped.

"It's about time too, stuck here forever without any broads, nightmare!"

"SIRIUS!" Molly and Lily exclaimed.

"As I was saying," James continued, "This is going to be a change for all of us. We've become accustomed to living with each other in relative peace and safety. Now we're returning to the real world. We need to be careful and look out for each other." He directed this last point mainly to the kids going to Hogwarts. "For you kids, this will be your first real experience in the world. Before here you were too young to really go out much of anywhere or meet anybody. Take advantage of this new experience, but remain cautious and remember your lessons. Stick together."

"James the portkeys." Lily said

"Right, everyone grab hold of one of the portkeys and hang on tight."

Harry soon found himself being pulled by his navel. A moment later he was looking up at a large castle.

"So this is Hogwarts." Ron said coming up beside Harry. "Huh. I always imagined it bigger."

Without further ado the kids separated to say their goodbyes to their parents and surrogate parents, as they would be returning to their homes while the six were at Hogwarts.

"Remember to write, and don't leave your vegetables. I'll miss you and I love you." Lily said sobbing as she hugged her son goodbye.

"Love you too mum." Harry said, giving his mother a gentle pat on the back before she released him. He held out his hand to his father and was pulled into a manly hug.

"Take care of yourself and the others Harry. Remember to keep up with your training, and write home once you make the Quidditch Team." James said, giving his son another squeeze before letting go. "Love you kid." He said ruffling Harry's already unmanageable hair.

"Love you too Dad."

With last commands to stay out of trouble and be safe the six headed up the path towards the entrance to their new home. They didn't talk, but they could all feel each other's nervous energy. Just before they reached the steps to the school Harry turned to face his friends.

"Okay, I know we're all nervous, but we have nothing to fear from these kids or teachers. All the same, let's try and stick together, at least until we get our bearings, okay?" The others nodded. Harry wrapped his arm around Ginny's waist and everyone else fell into step behind them. With a wave of his hand, the front doors opened to emit them and they made their way across the entrance way to the double doors for the Great Hall. Just before entering, Harry gave the signal for everyone to keep their eyes peeled. He didn't expect anything to happen, but they had been trained not to take chances, especially when entering the foreign territory of an unknown collective bigger than their own.

With another wave, the large oak doors swung open emitting the six teenagers, Harry and Ginny leading the way. Although they didn't know it, their presence was something to behold. The hall fell silent as they watched the six intimidating figures walk down the center aisle with a cool confidence that said, "I can destroy you without even trying." Harry especially seemed to have an aura of power about him which made the other students gasp as he walked by them. Dumbledore stood to welcome them as they reached about half way to the front.

"Welcome. Welcome. Please come right up to the front so I may introduce you." He said smiling with happy twinkle in his eye. Harry immediately noticed the greasy haired man at the teacher's table, mainly because of the look of pure hatred on his face. He must be Snape, Harry thought. His father and Sirius had told him that he may have trouble with the man, in slightly more colorful language.

"Students, as I announced earlier, we will have six new students joining us this year. They will be entering the sixth year class, having already completed their OWLs. Please be kind and help them in anyway you can." There was murmuring throughout the crowd. People were trying to figure out who they were and why they were coming to school so late. "Professor McGonagall, if you please." An older woman, whom Harry remembered seeing at Order meetings when he was young, stood and walked around the table holding a small wooden stool and an old hat. The sorting hat, he reminded himself. He was trying to remember all the stories he had been told about Hogwarts over the years.

"Ms. Granger, if you would." Dumbledore motioned to the stool. Hermione looked over to Harry who gave her a nod and cautiously made her way up the steps to the wooden seat. The hat was placed on her head, but said nothing. It continued to say nothing for another twenty minutes before finally proclaiming, "Founder's Lot!" Immediately, chatter filled the hall as Hermione removed the hat and returned to their group. McGonagall looked to Dumbledore, unsure how to proceed and scowled when she found him laughing. The headmaster stood and held his hands up for quiet.

"You are understandably confused, as no one has ever been sorted into the Founder's Lot before. However, allow me to explain." The headmaster said when the volume in the Hall rose once more. "When the founder's created the sorting hat, they foresaw the problem of someone possibly being unsortable. While usually the hat will simply choose the person's strongest traits, if it finds itself unable to do so, it will default to this fifth house. As this is the case, I believe an adjustment is in order." With that the professor waved his wand bringing forth a small table with three chairs to a side at the front of the room between the other house tables and the platform for the head's table. And just as he suspected the rest of the six were sorted into the Founder's Lot as well. Harry couldn't help but feel like a spectacle as everyone stared at their table. After the feast, Dumbledore requested that they stay while the other houses adjourned to their respective corners of the castle. Once the Great Hall was emptied of most of its inhabitants, Dumbledore approached their table.

"Professor, I wonder, if we're not in any of the houses, where will we be staying?" Hermione asked. Dumbledore smiled at his student.

"On the contrary Ms. Granger, you _are_ in a house, it is simply one that has never been used before." He chuckled and the twinkle in his eyes increased in his mirth. "However, as Headmaster, I am privy to the location of your house's common room, as no others are, so if you would follow me." The six stood as one unit and followed Dumbledore from the room. He led them to the second floor and a small hallway. At a tapestry of a dragon, he paused and stated: "Cranky Gophers." The Tapestry pulled aside to reveal an old oak door with a golden knob. He turned back to the students following him and smiled at their disbelieving faces. "I assure you, the password is not mine." He opened the door and stepped inside holding it open for the students. Inside was a large room adorned with all the colors of the other four houses. Two couches and two armchairs sat in front of an inviting fire place. In the corner of the room was a large table with six chairs around it. Along the wall were various bookshelves and paintings. In the back were two revolving staircases leading up to a balcony with two doors. Harry assumed one was for girls and one for boys.

"Well here you are, make yourselves at home. The elves will have arranged your trunks by now. Breakfast will be served at eight tomorrow and classes begin at nine. I'll just let you get settled then unless you have any questions." Of course Hermione spoke up.

"What's that room for, sir?" She pointed to a dark door on the far left.

"Well, according to my notes which have been passed down to me from various other headmasters, that room there should be quite similar to the room on the seventh floor that we refer to as the come and go room or the room of requirement. It provides what you ask of it. Perhaps you can use it in your training." Dumbledore suggested with a smile before leaving the six to explore their new home.

"So much for coming out of isolation," Neville remarked.

After a brief exploration of their new home, they met by the fireplace.

"Okay, I think it would be wise to do a little recon work tonight so we have more familiarity with our surroundings tomorrow. Hermione, Neville, if you wouldn't mind checking the grounds. Be sure to note any places that could be used for hiding." Hermione and Neville nodded before changing forms and taking off through the window into the night. "Right, Luna, I want you and Ginny to start with the towers and work your way back here. Use your form to check in some of the smaller places, if necessary. Ron and I are going to start in the dungeons and we'll meet you back here. I want to set up some surveillance in the hallways surrounding us and in the entrance hall if possible. Everyone got it?" Harry asked. At their nods, he had them move out. Ron and he moved quietly in the shadows, disillusionment charms cloaking them somewhat from any prying eyes they might encounter. After placing some concealed observation charms around the entrance hall, they moved towards the dungeons.

"Our information is that Slytherin house is down here as well as Hufflepuff." Harry whispered. The quietly made their way around taking in the area. Eventually they made it back to their own hallway on the second floor and began setting up some more surveillance, this time adding a ward that will alert them of any visitors. As they were doing this, Ron took the opportunity to mention an idea he'd been working on to Harry.

"So you remember how I was doing independent study on muggle warfare and weaponry?" Ron asked. Harry nodded so he continued. "Well I read about these things called mines. They are used in wars to guard an area from attack. I was thinking that muggle weaponry like this could be useful to us. Just as they wouldn't expect us to use martial arts, they would think about these kind of weapons either. We may be able to use them to take out large numbers if we can design a battlefield situation for them." Ron finished looking to Harry for a reaction. His friend considering the idea, he could tell by the way his forehead was scrunched up in concentration.

"I think that may be a good idea, but we would have to ensure that our side is prepared as well otherwise we may end up with our own casualties. Let's think about it. Why don't you draw up a few different plans and we can try and figure out a way to create a trap for them." Harry suggested. They were just finishing the wards when Ginny and Luna returned. "So?" Harry asked his girlfriend.

"Everything is pretty simple. Gryffindor and Ravenclaw are both in the towers as we were told. On the seventh floor we discovered a wall that exuded a high level of magic output. We think that it's the room of requirement that Dumbledore was talking about. So we put up some surveillance in the area to see if anyone is using it and what for." She concluded. Harry smiled and opened his arms to her.

"Great, okay let's call it a night shall we?" He said leading the way back into the common room with Ginny at his side. When they entered they found Neville and Hermione waiting for them in front of the fire place. "How's it look out there?"

Hermione motioned for Neville to speak. "It's actually a pretty similar landscape to the manor. It has a lake, a quidditch pitch, and a forest. Although the forest is quite large and contains a significant amount of magical creatures. We spotted a herd of centaur, some unicorns, a nest of acromantulas and even some thestrals and hippogriffs. There is also a Whomping Willow on the east side of the grounds. There is very little level ground, most of the surrounding area is slanted one way or another, but we can use the higher ground as an advantage, it's the other possibility that may be a problem." Neville finished. Everyone took in this information and Harry filled the other two in on the castle and the surveillance measures.

Just as he had thought the door on the left side of the balcony led to the boys dormitory with three four poster beds, each with one of the boys trunks at the end. On the other side of the balcony was the girl's dormitory with a similar set up. Each room had its own bathroom. Harry had just climbed into bed with Ron snoring in the bed next to him and Neville reading in the one across from him, when the door to their room opened. Neville didn't bother looking up, he already knew who it was. Harry smiled as he saw his girlfriend enter. Her dark red hair hung down loosely on her back and she was wearing pajama shorts and one of Harry's t-shirts. She climbed into bed when he slid over and snuggled up to him.

"These beds are bigger than the one in your room." She whispered to him.

"Yeah, maybe you won't steal all the blankets now." He chuckled into her hair as she slapped him playfully on the leg. Soon they both settled down to sleep.

The next morning seemed to come too soon as the six made their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast. They weren't used to eating so late. Normally they got up at six, had a small breakfast before their morning run then ate again before finishing their exercise routine. This morning they had gotten up at six and decided to run around the grounds before showering and heading to breakfast. Harry thought that this would probably be their new routine, so they might as well just jump right into it. They hadn't had a chance yet to figure out the other room in their common space. Perhaps they would move their strength and agility training to the evening.

As they entered the hall, they once again found all eyes on them. Making their way to their table they sat down and began eating, somewhat ravenously, especially Ron, Neville, and Harry who were three big boys. A man with graying brown hair and tired eyes approached their table, it was a man they all new and loved.

"Remus!" was their greeting. He smiled as he greeted each of them.

"What are you doing here?" Ginny asked

"I'm the new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher." He said smiling and proceeded to hand out their schedules. Harry and the others looked them over and frowned at each other. Before Harry turned to ask Remus about their concerns.

"Remus, why aren't there numbers next to the classes? Does that mean we're in all the beginning courses?" Harry said pointing to the place on his schedule where it simply stated "Transfiguration". Remus laughed at their frowns and clapped Harry on the shoulder.

"No Harry, you're in sixth year Transfiguration. They just don't use numbers for the courses here."

"Professor, what do you learn in this defense against the dark arts class?" Hermione asked curious as to what he would be teaching. Remus tried to figure out a way to explain it to them in terms they would understand.

"It's a bit like your Application and Defense of curses and hexes class I think." At that they all nodded and returned to looking over their schedule.

"This is weird." Ron murmured to himself. "There's only four classes a day and nothing in the evening."

"We can take advantage of that time for training and stuff." Neville put in. Remus nodded, but thought perhaps he should point out…

"You'll need some time in the evenings for your essays and other work as well." Just as he had expected the six students turned to him with shocked expressions on their faces.

"Essays? Why would we do that?" Ginny asked perplexed.

"Well they are assigned in classes here. You have to write them for your grades to stay up. They show your professors that you know the material."

"Why wouldn't we know that material if we read the books and listened in class?" Hermione asked.

"Believe it or not, some students don't do the reading or pay attention in class, so teachers make them learn by requiring proof of it in essays." At their stunned faces, Remus laughed again. "Just think of them as a way to cement the knowledge into your brains, okay?" The six nodded their acceptance. "Alright, now since you've formed a new house, Dumbledore asked me to represent it on the faculty. So I'm sort of your head of house. That being said, if you have any questions or problems, come see me." Ron raised his hand. "Go ahead Ron, just speak up."

"What about Quidditch?"

Remus hadn't thought about that. Hermione and Luna didn't particularly care for flying, and even if they did, they wouldn't have enough to field a team. "Let me discuss it with the Headmaster and I'll see what I can do, okay?" Ron nodded and smiled. Playing on a real Quidditch team was one of the things he was looking forward to most at Hogwarts.

"I'd prefer to do the announcements, but I'm willing to participate if needed. I think I would enjoy a friendly competition." Hermione stated and Luna agreed. They rarely played at home, but they knew how to play and were pretty proficient at riding brooms. Hermione had even managed to quell her fear of heights when necessary. Remus smiled at them. Perhaps he could suggest that they be allowed to field a team with a player short. He had no doubt that even with a player down, they would be a difficult competitor for the other houses with their skills in strategy.

Breakfast ended and the six moved off to their first class, attempting to distance themselves from the crowds of students around them. Crowds were dangerous. Anyone could sneak up on you without being noticed. Eventually they made it to the Charms classroom. A small elf-like man was standing on a box behind a podium in the front of the room. Ginny, Neville and Harry took seats at a front table with Ron, Hermione and Luna sitting at the table behind them. Harry watched a group of giggling girls enter the classroom. They were sending him furtive glances and it was making him uncomfortable. Ginny could feel his discomfort and began watching the girls like a hawk, unsure of their intentions. The five girls proceeded to their seats across the aisle from the six, but continued to look over at Harry and giggle and hush each other. By the end of the class, Ginny and Harry's emotions were running a little high, as were their stress levels.

As they were leaving the classroom, one of the girls, a brunette with a confident smile on her face, grabbed one of Harry's arms to hold him back. Even before Harry could react, Ginny had pulled her wand and shot a stunner at the girl, knocking her back and unconscious as she hit the tile floor. Professor Flitwick, as they discovered during class, ran into the hallway at the sound of the other girls screaming. He found a very angry Ginny being held back by Harry Potter and their other four friends surrounding them with their wands out.

"Ms. Weasley, Mr. Potter! What's going on here?" He squeaked.

"Professor, that girl moved to attack Harry." Ginny stated, calming down as Harry rubbed her arms. Professor Flitwick turned to Lavender Brown, the unconscious girl's friends.

"Is this so?" A blonde girl in Gryffindor robes stepped forward.

"No sir, Lavender just reached out to Harry's arm so she could talk to him for a minute, and that one," she pointed to Ginny, "hexed her." The professor had been told that these new students had an unusual childhood that might make them a little unsure in some social situations. He wondered if that might be the case here.

"Alright, everyone move along. Ms. Patil, if you would revive your friend. Harry, Ginny, please report to your Head of House, and give him this note." Professor Flitwick flicked his wand and produced a small slip of paper. Harry took the note and he and Ginny broke off from their friends, proceeding to the third floor where Remus' office was.

Remus was sitting at his desk when he heard a knock at his door. "Come in," he called. Harry and Ginny entered and without saying a word handed him a note and took a seat in the two chairs before his desk. Remus looked between the teens and the note they had handed them, before deciding that perhaps he should read the note first.

_It appears there was a confrontation in the hallway between Ms. Weasley and Ms. Lavender Brown of Gryffindor. I have established that this conflict was over young Mr. Potter, but remain unsure of Ms. Weasley's motivations. I'll leave them to you. _

_ -Filius Flitwick, Charms Professor_

Uh oh. Remus had just discussed the other day that they may run into this problem. None of the six was used to casual confrontations. There was no one to make a play for Harry's affections at the Manor. The kids were taught to confirm a threat and resolve it quickly and efficiently. This could take some explaining.

He looked up at the two teens in front of him. They were holding hands and silently communicating with each other. "Ginny, do you want to tell me what happened?" She nodded.

"In charms class I perceived that Harry was being watched in a threatening way. We made a quick retreat after class to avoid the unknown enemy threat, but were accosted on the way. One of the girls grabbed Harry's arm, so I stunned her so that we could question her motives and connections later." Remus smiled. They had been trained well, but right now that was the problem.

"Here's the thing Ginny. That girl wasn't an enemy. Well, not the kind you stun anyway. She was probably trying to flirt with Harry." Remus explained and watched the fire come into the redhead's eyes once more.

"FLIRT WITH HIM!? How dare she? Well then she got what she deserved anyway." Ginny finished crossing her arms across her chest. Remus chuckled a little.

"Ginny, you can't stun everyone that comes up to you. It's just not how thing are handled here."

"But she was a threat, and I protected Harry. I don't understand." Remus sighed and rubbed his forehead trying to figure out a way to explain this.

"Okay, these small, inconsequential, everyday conflicts are like, when Harry and Ron argue about Quidditch. They don't get resolved by magical _or physical_ (he added for good measure) means. Consider them civil conflicts, okay?"

"How do I know when one is just a civil conflict and not an actual one?" It was a good question, Remus thought.

"Outside of extreme circumstances, consider your dealings with the students and teachers here as civil conflicts. They are to be dealt with by discussion only. If the conflict escalates to where a wand is raised at you, you may use minor defensive measures only. Understand?" Ginny and Harry both nodded. "Now as I believe this was a simple misunderstanding, I will let you go unpunished, but if it happens again there will be consequences. Okay?" Again they nodded. "Good now get to class, here's a note to explain your tardiness." After taking the note the two ran out the door towards Potions.

Carefully making their way down to the dungeons they sprinted into the potions lab, interrupting an irate Snape.

"Weasley, Potter!" Snape spat, "twenty points from each of you."

"But we have a note, sir." Ginny stated, holding out the note Remus had given them. Snape snarled at them ripping the note from her hand before crumpling it and throwing it in the bin.

"Sit! Now!" He yelled. As they made their way to the back where Hermione had saved them two seats, Ginny noticed the brunette from earlier glaring at her and she sent a smirk back. She wished she had done something with more lasting damage, now that she knew that the girl had been hitting on her boyfriend. As they passed by Ron, Luna and Neville, Ron held up his hand in an "O." Harry accepted this information with a nod. He could certainly see how they would perceive Snape as an opponent.

"Well now that all of our student's with special privileges have arrived, perhaps I can continue with my class," Snape sneered. "POTTER! Can you tell me how to make an antidote for the poison on the board?" Harry considered the ingredients on the board. The antidote was fairly simple, but the poison was so mild, even a small bezoar would get rid of the effects. Having assessed this, Harry promptly told the Professor just that and was taken back by the roar that the man released at him. He briefly wondered if his animagus form was a lion.

"Why you arrogant little…" Snape began, but was interrupted by Hermione.

"Excuse me, _sir_, but the Hogwarts bylaws state that a professor may not use insulting language towards a student and can be disciplined for such actions up to termination for the act. I thought you might want to know before you continue." She said stoically, staring straight at the Professor along with the five others around her.

"OUT! GET OUT!" Snape shouted "ALL OF YOU GET OUT RIGHT NOW!" Despite his tone, none of them moved, but Luna raised her hand. Without waiting to be called on she spoke.

"The class period is not over yet professor and as there is not reason for our early dismissal, leaving would be cause for punishment coming from an unexcused absence." By this time Snape was so angry that he was visibly shaking. Without a word, he turned on his heel and strode into his office, slamming the door behind him.

"Well he's not a very good teacher, is he?" Luna commented. Ginny suggested that they should prepare the potion he left on the board, since they were not left any instructions.

Meanwhile Snape flooed from his office directly into Dumbledore's. The headmaster looked up, surprised to see his potion's master unannounced.

"Severus, don't you have a class at this time? Is there a problem?" Albus asked, standing from his seat and coming around the desk where his potions professor still stood trembling in rage. Slowly, Snape was able to get out a few words.

"Those. Arrogant. _Children_. Disturbed. My. Class." Not understanding, the headmaster allowed him to calm himself before asking anything further.

"I'm sorry Severus, I don't understand. You had a problem in class?" Snape looked at the Headmaster as if it physically pained him that the man was so dense.

"The Potter brat and his friends showed up late, then became insolent disrupted my lesson. I demand that they be punished. I will not stand for it!" Snape sneered. Just thinking about those little brats made his blood boil.

"Hmm, could I possibly request your memory of this event so I may determine the severity of the punishment they deserve?" The headmaster requested calmly. Snape nodded curtly and conjured a small bottle before extracting a white wisp from his temple. The Headmaster then dispensed the memory into his pensive and watched the events play out. Just as he suspected, his professor was far from being blameless.

"Unfortunately Severus, there is nothing here to be punished. Their tardiness is excused by the note. Mr. Potter answered your question, quite thoroughly, and the two witches merely recited laws in the Hogwarts Handbook. In fact, I must question your actions, because as the witches said, it appeared as though you were about to use inappropriate language in your dealings with Mr. Potter. If you found his answer insufficient, a different approach to your correction should have been used. Although, I myself found nothing at fault with it. I also must wonder, why you left your class unsupervised in a room with dangerous ingredients around them." Dumbledore's eyes were not twinkling with their usual mirth. "I had hoped, Severus, that you would be able to move past your childhood grudge with Mr. Potter's relatives, but it appears I was foolish in my optimism. It is not my wish to discipline you, but if this behavior continues, I assure you, it will not be ignored." Dumbledore looked at his shocked potions master over his half-moon glasses. "Now I suggest you return to your class before an accident can occur.


	5. Reconciling differences

**A/N Thanks so much to my reviewers you are all really great. Your ideas were good as well! As for the question about their parents knowing about their relationship: They do know that Harry and Ginny are dating, I guess I never really explictley said it though. However, they don't know that they continued sleeping together. That's a surprise for another day ;) Thanks again you guys are great and I'm glad you like the story so far. I like writing it, which helps the updates come faster. Enjoy!**

Chapter 4

Snapes's mouth was still hanging agape with the tongue lashing he had received when he returned to his office. Shaking his head to compose himself, he then threw open the office door and took in the scene before him. Most of the class was talking amongst themselves. Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas were playing paper Quidditch on their desk. Cheeky little Gryffindors he thought. However, what drew his eye, was the back corner of the room where he saw the six students there diligently working at their cauldrons. No talking. No goofing off. Just silently working. He raised his eyebrows at the sight before strutting up the aisle steps. His movement caught the students attention and the room became silent once more.

"Ten points from Gryffindor each, Mr. Thomas, Mr. Finnigan." He sneered as he passed the boys. The class watched silently as he continued to the back, expecting another scene. Harry looked up as the professor approached. "Mr. Potter, might I ask what you are doing?" He asked with only a slight snarl in his voice. He was hoping they were making love potions or something equally ridiculous so he would have an excuse to punish them. No such luck.

"Since you left no specific instructions sir, we concluded from your line of questioning and the board notations that you either wanted us to make the poison or the antidote to it. Since we didn't know which it was, Hermione, Ginny and I are making the antidote, while Ron, Neville and Luna are making the poison." He concluded stoically, waiting for a response from the professor in front of him.

Severus Snape for his part had never come across students like them before, but his character and history made praising them an impossibility. Therefore, he did the only thing he could do. He turned to face the rest of the class.

"What are you doing! Stop gawking and get to work! Anyone without something to turn in at the end of this class will be the poisoned Guiney pig testing the antidotes." He yelled resuming his place at the front of the classroom. Immediately the classroom was a flurry of activity as fearful students raced to produce something in their cauldrons.

On their way to dinner that night the six ran into a group of Slytherin students. There was a blonde haired boy flanked by two large goons, a blonde girl with an upturned nose, and tall lanky boy with brown hair and a bad case of acne. After potions, Ginny and Harry had related what Remus had said about civic conflicts to the others, so while normally they would have prepared for this threat, by taking a cautious formation with wands raised, they were now slowly approaching the group with itchy hands just above the pockets containing their wands.

"Well, Potter, nice of you to show up. Where have you been; hiding out under your mummy's skirt?" The blonde haired boy asked smugly as his cohorts snickered around him.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Harry asked, stopping a safe distance from the group and close to a door that could be used as an escape or barricade. The boy seemed to be affronted at his lack of recognition.

"I'm Draco Malfoy." The boy sneered. Oh, that explained it, Harry thought.

"Oh, well then, I'm afraid I'm not allowed to speak with you." Harry stated calmly, looking for a way around the group while avoiding a confrontation.

"Well at least you recognize your place in the presence of your superiors." Draco said smugly, polishing his nails on his robe and holding his head up haughtily.

"Of course I do, but I don't see what that has to do with you?" Harry asked. Draco's face turned red in anger and the brutes next to cracked their knuckles, in what Harry assumed was meant to be a menacing way. "Actually, I'm not allowed to speak with you because I was specifically told to ignore baby death eaters while at this institution. Malfoys is a widely known to be connected with Voldemort." Harry lectured as though speaking to a very dim witted child, which he supposed, at least a couple of the students in front of him were.

"Why you…" Draco said angrily advancing on Harry as he drew his wand. He hadn't taken two steps before he was bound by ropes on the ground.

"Harry?" Ginny said, and Harry answered the unasked question with a nod. Within a moment all of the Malfoy's friends were bound as well. For good measure, Harry performed the silencio spell on them.

Five minutes later the six walked into the packed Great Hall for lunch with five bound and silenced Slytherins bouncing along in the air behind them. They reached the front of the hall and took a place in front of Remus, who was sitting at the head's table with a shocked expression on his face.

"Re…I mean Professor Lupin. We followed your instructions for civic conflict resolution. We were purposefully accosted in the hallway by this group and informed them that we did not wish to speak with them. At this point the blonde boy, who informed me his name is Draco Malfoy, raised his wand in a threatening way at us at which point we used appropriate force in defensive measures and disabled him. We perceived a continued threat from his followers and bound them as well. I have pulled a memory from my head of this encounter that you can view at your leisure, but I believe we acted within the parameters of your instructions on civic conflicts." Harry stated to his Head of House while holding up a small glass bottle with a white swirling substance inside.

The hall was dead silent and staring between Remus, Harry, and the five bouncing bound Slytherins. Even Snape, who would normally be in an outrage by now was too shocked to speak. Dumbledore was the first to recover.

"Mr. Potter, if you would please release these students; and you may retain your memory, I don't believe that is necessary." Harry nodded and slipped the bottle into his robes before waving his wand absently to release the Slytherins who dropped to the floor. After collecting himself Draco immediately stood and scowled at Potter.

"How dare you, you filthy little blood traitor." Then he turned to his head of house, "They attacked us, I demand that they be expelled for this!" When he received no reaction he huffed and turned stomped his foot. "Just wait 'til my father hears about this!" He proclaimed, just before he was struck by a stunner.

"Mr. Potter, what are you doing?" Dumbledore said standing now.

"Sir, he just admitted to knowing the location of a wanted Death Eater. Protocol and Ministry laws demand his immediate apprehension." Harry said, confused as to why he even needed to explain. Surely, Dumbledore was familiar with these laws. He was, after all, the head of the Wizengamot.

"Harry, please release him." Dumbledore said pinching the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes. Harry looked at the others behind him, but their faces showed his own confusion.

"I don't understand, sir. That's not proper protocol." Harry tried again.

Without waiting any longer, Dumbledore released Malfoy himself. "Mr. Malfoy, I suggest you go to your Head of House's office immediately and await his arrival." Malfoy stalked angrily from the Hall. Harry for his part was entirely confused by the headmaster's actions.

"How can you…" He began to ask, but stopped when Dumbledore raised his hand.

"Mr. Potter, Mr. Malfoy's statement though suggestive of exactly what you claim, is not precise enough to warrant a ministry investigation. He may have merely been speaking of some future point when he is once again in contact with his father." Harry remained unconvinced, but couldn't fault the headmaster's logic. Perhaps, he was attempting to prevent an unnecessary court fiasco. Yes! That must be it, harry thought. There could be no other explanation for his odd behavior.

Harry quietly conferred with his friends who agreed with his conclusion and they proceeded to sit down for lunch, fully unaware of the still gawking student population and teachers around them. From the Gryffindor table, George Weasley could be heard saying, "What did they just say? Was that English?!"

The rest of the day was far less exciting. The proceeded to Herbology and History of Magic, both studies which they had sufficiently completed before the age of ten.

After dinner that evening, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, and Luna retreated to the sanctuary of their common room to escape the throngs of students staring at them and asking them questions about the Malfoy confrontation. One unlucky Gryffindor caught Harry unawares with a pat on the shoulder and ended up in the hospital wing with a broken wrist. Despite apologizing for the misunderstanding, the group still received glares from many of the other students following that.

Harry collapsed onto the couch and accepted Ginny into his arms, who then proceeded to curl up in his lap. Around them Hermione sat with Ron on the other couch while Neville and Luna each took a chair.

"This is so much harder than I thought it would be." Ginny groaned, hiding her face in Harry's shirt.

"Why are people here so irrational and rude?" Hermione asked the room at large. Ron shook his head and wrapped an arm behind Hermione on the couch, letting her lean her head on his shoulder for comfort.

"And we have three essays due this week. I don't even know where to begin with those." Neville said and the others nodded in agreement with his statement. It was quiet for a moment and then Luna spoke up.

"Do you suppose we should write our essays the way we presented our findings from our independent studies? Perhaps we can just transcribe what we would say about it if we were presenting the information." She suggested.

"Well we have until Thursday for the first two and Friday for the last. I propose we write them tonight and have Remus look them over. He ought to know the rubric for essay writing." Harry added. "But first I believe we are overdue in our strength and agility training." With that Ginny leapt off his lap and pulled him up by the arm.

"Yes! Let's explore this room we've heard so much about." She exclaimed pulling Harry toward the black door on the far wall. The rest followed them and peered over their shoulders as Ginny opened the door. Inside they found a bright white, empty room. "How does it work?" Ginny wondered aloud.

"Here let me try" Harry said stepping into the room. "We need a medicine ball," he stated. At his feet a red leather ball appeared. Encouraged by his success the others entered the room and began requesting the other necessary equipment. "I wonder if we can ask for a whole room so that we don't have to ask for specific items each time." Harry questioned. By the end of the night they had finished their training and their essays and still managed to get to bed by ten o'clock. After all, sleep is a necessary component to a healthy body, and a healthy body is required for the full use of magical energy. It was an anthem that had been drilled into their heads over the years as they fought against bedtimes and afternoon naps. Now, they gladly retired to their beds after both a physically and emotionally exhausting day.

At breakfast the next morning Harry once again approached the area in front of the platform where Remus sat at the Head's table.

"Yes Harry, what can I do for you?" he asked the young man patiently waiting his acknowledgment.

"Professor, I wonder if I might bother you to review our essays to ensure the formatting is correct." Harry asked politely showing Remus the stack of parchment in his hands.

"I'd be happy to Harry. I will just need some time to get through them. When are they due?"

"Some are due in two days and others three days." Harry answered. Remus nodded.

"That's fine Harry, I'll have them back to you tomorrow at Breakfast. Okay?" Harry nodded his agreement and returned to his friends at the table.

Professor Sprout who was next to Remus and observed the conversation leaned over so that he could hear her quiet voice. "Remus, typically professors do not review students' work for other professors."

"I understand, but I believe this is a unique case, and most probably does not involve the worries you're speaking about. I am merely correcting how they are writing, not what they are writing." Remus responded kindly to the older woman. She smiled at him and nodded her understanding. As he finished up his meal he began looking over the parchments in front of him.

_Harry Potter_

_Topic: The fertilization process for the Gemini Root._

_First: Remove exterior covering (Bark) from the undeveloped vessel_

_Second: Extricate Oil mature Root _

_Third: Rub oil onto the exposed vessel_

_Fourth: Continue this action daily for approximately seven days_

_For more information about the uses and history of the Gemini Root, please see pages 35-42 in Alabaster Flux's My Plant, My friend._

Remus groaned. He knew they should have required essays sooner, but there was never any need when it was obvious in discussion that they knew the information. He began making notes at the bottom of the page, of which there was plenty of room. While Harry had cut the parchment to the required twelve inches, his writing only filled about two of them.

Remus spent that night reading through all the essays and determined that a tutorial was in order. He asked whether professor McGonagall might be willing to assist him in his explanation. She agreed and he informed Harry during breakfast the next day.

That same night he found himself in a classroom with professor McGonagall and six obstinate teenagers.

"Why would we write all that when we can say the same thing in one line? Ginny asked after Remus had pointed out the finer points of arranging paragraphs. He looked to Minerva for assistance, as his head was beginning to pound.

"In essay writing it is not about efficiency of words. An explanation takes time. For example, if I wanted to tell you how to get to the great hall from here, I could say go to the first floor and through the large oak doors on your right. However, I can make the explanation more complete if I were to tell you to go out of this class room and turn to your left following that hallway until you reach a tapestry of a centaur playing cricket. At this point you want to turn right and take the stair case in front of you, but only if it has two staircases currently attached to the other end, as one of those tends to move. If it does you may proceed down the stairs, turn right and continue down another set of stairs until you reach the hallway with a painting of a woman playing hopscotch with her kneazles. You may ask her for directions if you are confused or any painting along the way. Otherwise proceed down that hallway until you reach a grand white marble staircase. Here, proceed down the stairs and look to your left. You should see tall oak doors with golden handles. If it is a meal time, the double doors will be open, otherwise they will be closed and possibly locked. From here I might proceed to explain the procedure for finding a staff member if the doors are indeed locked. Do you see the difference?" Professor McGonagall finished.

Remus was staring blankly at her with his mouth open, but the six pupils in front of her had taken down her explanation word for word. Harry raised his hand. "Yes, Mr. Potter." She asked.

"Professor, why would we need to explain in such detail something the instructor already knows. Surely saying that the Great Hall is on the first floor through the large oak doors proves that you know the material. It seems irrational and wasteful to explain any further when you both already know the conclusive point."

"Consider it as being thorough in your explanation. Instead of thinking that you are writing it for your professor, pretend that you are writing it for someone with no knowledge of the topic." She responded kindly. But Harry still looked unsure.

"But then we would need to provide an explanation of the magical world and practices for every essay we wrote. It's just so illogical." Harry said, frustrated by his confusion.

McGonagall sighed. Either these children were incredibly smart, or incredibly thick. She had yet to decide which it was. Remus decided to save her the further explanation. "That's true Harry, so let's redefine who you are writing for. Consider your audience to be a sixth year wizard like yourself, who simply hasn't read the material." There that should do it, Remus thought. "For that matter, why don't you use your textbooks as a model for your essay structure. Note how they explain things and try to emulate them." Of course the solution was so simple, why didn't he think of it before? He cursed himself for being so stupid.

"Can we use diagrams like the books do?" Harry asked.

"You know what Harry, you go right ahead and use diagrams if you want." Remus said, admitting defeat.

The weeks went by and Harry and the others were getting increasingly frustrated with their classes.

"We've been doing the same transfiguration for three days!" Ginny complained one night at dinner. "We completed it in under two hours and we were twelve and thirteen at the time!"

"It is awfully tedious. Remind me again why we are taking classes in subjects we've already studied?" Hermione asked.

"Dumbledore thought it would be important in our social development as relating to our peers is easiest when you are sharing a common goal." Luna answered her. The brunette slumped into her chair.

"But nobody even talks to us! We just sit there and watch them mess up the spells over and over and over…" Hermione exclaimed.

"Maybe we can arrange a meeting with Dumbledore to discuss our options." Harry said. They were still grumbling when Remus approached their table.

"I have good news. Professor Dumbledore has agreed to let you field a Quidditch team one player short! We are still trying to figure out a schedule, but it looks like you could be playing Ravenclaw at the end of next month." Ron was grinning from ear to ear and it didn't take long for him to attack Harry after Remus left.

"We should try and map out the advantages of having three chasers versus two beaters and see which one makes the most sense to cut from. Obviously, we can't remove the seeker or keeper. I know that Hermione and Luna would prefer to be chasers, but I think if we needed to we could train Hermione to be a decent beater. She has experience with cricket after all…"

"Ron. Breathe." Ginny said, cutting off her overly excited brother. Harry was laughing at Ron's exuberance.

"Alright Ron, those are good ideas, why don't you go ahead and start looking at statistics for the positions at full form and see which one gets more action during the game. We can discuss strategies later." Harry said, contenting his friend for the moment so they could finish eating.

An owl flew in then and landed in front of Harry. Opening the parchment he read:

_Dear Harry, _

_ Since you haven't been writing us nearly enough, your father and I are coming for a visit on Saturday. You can expect us around ten. _

_ Love, _

_ Mum_

Harry secretly cheered on the inside. Although he would never admit it, he missed his parents. They had always been around his entire life and now they simply weren't. In fact, he missed all the parents.

Ginny read the note over his shoulder and smiled.

Saturday couldn't come soon enough and all six of the teenagers were eagerly pacing the entrance hall watching the giant clock on the wall above them slowly move from 9:59 to 10:00. When his parents didn't immediately burst through the doors, he was slightly disappointed, but he didn't have to wait long. A few seconds later the Great doors opened to emit a beaming Lily and James Potter.

"Mum! Dad!" Harry yelled and raced towards them, a little embarrassed at his exuberance. When he saw all of his friends right behind him in their welcomes he shrugged off any hesitation to hug his parents. After greetings all around, they led the Potters to their common room.

"Pretty fancy," James commented when they entered the room. "I was a little upset you didn't get into Gryffindor, but I suppose this is an adequate substitute." He grinned at his son. "I noticed the charms in the entrance hall and again in your hallway. Surveillance? Are you looking out for someone in particular?" He asked.

Harry shrugged. "Not really, but most of the people here are strangers to us. We were just being cautious and trying to learn a little about the people around us at the same time." Harry explained. They began discussing classes and training, with the occasional complaints from the teenagers that this or that was boring or illogical. When Harry told them about the essay tutorial James laughed.

"I'll have to thank Remus for all his help, I suppose. It's a good thing he is patient." Lily laughed as well, but Harry and the others didn't see what was funny about the situation. Finally the conversation turned to the issue Harry had been dreading.

"So have you met some new people?" Lily asked. She was a little concerned that Harry hadn't mentioned any new friends in his letters home, and the way none of them met her eyes now confirmed her fears.

"The kids here…well, they haven't really taken to us easily." Hermione put in. "I think perhaps they are not sure what to make of us, but they treat us like an unknown species to be observed and occasionally prodded." The others nodded their agreement with Hermione's description.

Lily looked at James sadly. This is exactly what she was afraid of when Albus had suggested the isolated training. She had already heard about Ginny's confrontation with Lavender Brown as well as numerous others following that event. It was really no wonder that the other children were either intimidated or put off by the six. They didn't even have the advantage of additional housemates. Lily was truly at a loss for what to do to rectify this situation.

"I'm not sure what to tell you guys," James said. "I guess the best advice I have is to just keep at it. Try and do some things out in public. Play exploding snap out in the courtyard or go for a swim. Study under a tree. If the other kids see that you like to do the same things they do, maybe they'll come around and realize you're not so different after all." James shrugged. It was the only advice he could really think of, short of forcing interaction through some type of school activity, although, perhaps that isn't such a bad idea. He'd have to check with Albus and see if some type of event could be arranged.

They spent most of the day talking together and in the afternoon, the six showed them their training room and James evaluated their progress, giving suggestion when needed.

"I think it would be wise to cut your morning run to four miles if you want to do sprints afterwards to increase your speed. Overexertion isn't going to do you any good."

They stayed for dinner and ate at the table in front, which had been expanded to add two more chairs. It was obvious to Lily and James that their children had not been exaggerating when most of the school stared nearly constantly at their table. Even after a couple months, they still seemed to be living in a fish bowl when around the other students. Lily noticed a few students openly glaring at them, as though personally offended by their presence. She couldn't understand such a harsh reaction, but she considered that the fact that the six were constantly together was putting off some people from approaching them. Therefore she raised the idea of possibly going around in pairs rather than the large group at times. She wasn't comfortable with them going around alone in this seemingly hostile environment, and it was difficult enough trying to convince the six to even do this when they had always been taught the adage "safety in numbers," not to mention they enjoyed being with all of their friends.


	6. The First Big Tests

**A/N Wow, some of you guys are really good at guessing what's going to happen, either that or I'm just way to predictable, but I prefer to think that you're just geniuses. Thanks for the support. Enjoy, and review!**

Chapter 5

The six stood at the end of their hallway watching as the masses of students walked by them. Harry turned to face his friends, clearly uneasy about the plan they were putting into action.

"Okay, I think perhaps we should try different groupings to see which ones attract the most students. I suggest Luna and Neville go together, Ginny and Hermione and Ron and I. How's that sound?" He saw a brief flash of sadness on Ginny's face, but she nodded along with the others. "It's only for the morning, and we'll see each other in classes obviously. Alright, let's intersperse. Luna and Neville you go first." Harry directed and his two friends made their way into the passing stream of students towards their first class. A few minutes later, Ginny and Hermione followed. When they were out of sight, Ron and Harry entered the hallway and headed towards the Charms classroom. As the door to the room came into sight both boys stopped and immediately tensed at the sight before them. Hermione and Ginny were outside the door talking with a group of four boys.

"It's fine. They can handle it." Harry had to keep reminding himself. They were about to move forward again when a group of girls popped up in front of them, blocking their path.

"Hi Harry!" One of them stated. Harry recognized her as the one Ginny had stunned before.

"Hello." He said, trying to see around her to where Ginny was. Ron seemed to be in a similar predicament next to him.

"So there's a Hogsmeade weekend coming up. What are you doing for it?" She asked him, twirling her hair around her finger. She kept moving so that her head was right in his line of vision and he found himself wanting to hex her. Unfortunately, he had been taught that harming women outside of a battle was wrong, so instead he clenched his fists and answered through gritted teeth.

"I'm training." He said shortly. The girl in front of him pouted.

"Can't you do that some other time? I want you to come with me and my friends." She whined. Then fluttering her eyelashes she spoke in a low tone, "I'm sure we would have _lots of fun_."

"Look, I don't even know you and…" Harry cut off his reply when he caught sight of Ginny backed into a wall with a boy speaking to her, his hand resting next to her as he leaned over her. Ginny's eyes were flashing around, but Hermione was separated from her by two other boys. "Excuse me," Harry said distractedly as he pushed his way past the girl in front of him and quickly made his way over towards Ginny. He caught her eyes with his and saw them blazing in a deep fire. Unable to stop himself, he knocked the boy aside as he pulled Ginny to him and kissed her hard. She wrapped her arms around his neck and looked up into his eyes as they broke apart.

"I hate this new plan." She said before capturing his lips in another kiss.

"I agree; it's stupid." Harry concurred once they had come apart again. They both turned to see Ron and Hermione, who had been joined by Neville and Luna coming towards them while each keeping an eye on the crowd of students still around them.

"Mate, I got to say, I'm not a big fan of this new arrangement. Some of those girls are pretty scary." Ron said with a slight shudder and Hermione nodded.

"We didn't have any problems, strangely." Neville put in. "If we continue this plan I think it's best to have a boy and girl to each pair. No one even approached us." Harry shook his head.

"Neville, the whole point was for people to approach us. I just don't particularly care for the people who have so far. If we pair off that way, we might as well all just stick together like we were." Harry concluded.

"That's fine with me." Ginny said smiling.

"Ms Brown, Ms. Patil, Mr. Finnigan, Mr. Thomas, Six Lot, if you all wouldn't mind entering the classroom so I can begin the lesson…" Professor Flitwick said ushering the students into the room. Over the last month people had started addressing them as one unit. This was nothing new to them as they'd had many group names bestowed upon them over the years.

At lunch Ron pulled a small notebook from his bag and flipped it open, drawing their attention.

"Alright, I've considered most of the possibilities." He began and looked to Harry to see if he should continue. Harry nodded. "Considering that Hermione and Luna aren't specified to any particular position, I think we should take advantage of that through several strategies. For instance, if we are playing a team with strong chasers, we may want to forgo a third chaser for a second beater. Or if the team has a well-rounded offense in their chasers and seeker, then a defensive strategy might be necessary. What it comes down to is if we are being outplayed with early points by the other team, we need to batten down our defenses and up our snitch search. I suggest that in a situation like this we might add additional searchers who can aid in the finding of the snitch, thereby giving us the chance to finish the game early and hopefully overcome any chaser losses before they reach over 150." Ron said looking around at the others.

"That's a good strategy Ron." Harry complimented. "Have you considered that outside of specific circumstances, it might be best to go with only one beater, as having three chasers creates more opportunity for plays? That's my take on the ordinary game play, but I haven't researched how much influence beaters can have on the match."

The rest of the meal was spent conceiving of ways to optimize their strengths on the field without giving up too much ground to the other team. By the end of the meal even Hermione and Luna were heavily involved in the planning. Shortly there after, Harry found Madame Hooch to schedule a training session on the pitch for that Sunday.

"Alright Hermione, just give it a whack when it comes towards you." Ron shouted to her from across the field. "Don't worry about aiming right now." They were currently on the pitch and had taken the field shortly after sunrise. Harry wanted to make sure they still had the afternoon to visit Hogsmeade as they had spent all of yesterday training, and he thought they deserved a break.

Hermione just rolled her eyes at Ron, but took up her stance none the less. As the black metal ball came towards her she brought her arm forward, putting as much force behind her hit as possible. With all of their strength training, that was significant force. The ball went straight towards wand who was only just able to roll out of the way to avoid being hit.

"Bloody Hell woman! Are you trying to kill me?" He shouted. Harry and Ginny were flying off to the side tossing the Quaffle and laughing at the pair.

"Oi! Watch it there mate, it's coming back around." Harry motioned to the bludger which had changed course and was again heading in Ron's direction.

"Got it!" Neville shouted and batted it away again.

"Let's try that diversion play again before we wrap up." Luna suggested.

Luna, Ginny, and Hermione got into position with Hermione and Luna in front and Ginny in the middle behind them. Ron moved to his position as keeper. Neville was off to the side and Harry was floating just above the triangle of chasers. On Harry's command Ginny floated down and around Luna, as Harry came into her place. Neville moved to Hermione's position as she moved back to where Ron was. The triangle of new chasers then moved back towards their goal and converged before Ginny and Luna shot out of the group, followed slightly after by Hermione. The Quaffle was tucked safely under Ginny's arm, but during a barrel roll she dropped it to Hermione who flew directly beneath her Luna meanwhile had moved in front of Ginny and just before they reached the goal Hermione popped the ball up to her and she scored. It wasn't a very practical play, but Luna had made it up and they all agreed to at least try it once. It was supposed to confuse the opponent as to which players were acting as the chasers for a moment allowing them a chance to gain an advantage.

After showering and changing into some casual clothes the six journeyed down the path towards the gate, from which they had originally greeted their new home. Harry and Ginny were holding hands, and Ron had placed an arm around Hermione's shoulder, joking with her about his near accident during Quidditch practice. As they reached the cusp of the main strip, Harry stopped.

"Do you feel that?" He asked his friends, who had ceased their talking immediately at his sudden stop. They were each taking in the street of laughing school children before them. The dirt road contained flower venders and families, but also something that made Harry very uneasy.

"Yes, something seems off, but I'm not sure what." Ginny agreed releasing Harry's hand and moving to take out her wand. The other's replicated her actions and proceeded cautiously into the packed street at Harry's signal. They had just passed Honeydukes when they felt it, a sweeping cold chilling them to their very soul as only one kind of cold can. Chaos erupted around them as people ran for shelter and through the scurrying crowds they could see a wall of black cloaked figures floating towards them. They seemed strangely focused on their task as Dementors rarely are. It was all too easy for Harry to realize that he was the target of their unwavering gaze.

"We have two options." Luna said. "We can either try and drive them off with our patronuses, or attempt the spell we worked on last summer." They had indeed created a spell, the only problem was that it required all six of them to perform and would leave them defenseless for at least a couple minutes.

"HARRY!" All six looked up to find Remus, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Flitwick, and Snape charging towards them. All of them had their wands raised as they finally reached the group. Dumbledore opened his mouth to speak, but Harry cut him off.

"Professor, we have no time. If you can corral the Dementors with your protronuses, we can attempt a spell which may be able to defeat them. It is untested, but could be a way from preventing a future fight with the same beings." Snape was about to say something, but Dumbledore held up his hand.

"Very well Harry, but if the spell fails, we will require your assistance to drive them away." Harry nodded and moved to join his friends in a circle.

"Okay, everyone remember what to do?" They nodded and reached out to one another, clasping hands. As they concentrated a small ball of light began to form in the center of their circle, crackling as if pure electricity. It had a dull pink hue as it grew larger. Soon it was two feet in diameter and the teens opened their eyes. Harry released the hands of Ginny and Neville and pushed both of his out in front of him towards the ball of pink light which shot upwards toward the closest Dementor.

The crackling ball impacted the center of its chest and absorbed into the beast. Its arms flew to the sides and its chest heaved as it released a piercing cry. It only lasted for a moment before the creature seemed to shrivel into itself, eventually making a pop as its existence was destroyed in a small wisp of grey smoke. As soon as the pop sounded, the same reaction took place in all of the remaining Dementors, filling the town briefly with ear-splitting shrieks of agony, and then deafening silence, ending in a small series of pops. When it was over people began to emerge from the buildings looking around cautiously, unsure whether the danger was really gone.

Dumbledore approached the small group of friends, just as they hugged each other, elated at their achievement. "Might I ask what that was?" slight amusement leaking into his curiosity at the group before him. He expected Harry to speak, but instead Luna answered him.

"That, headmaster, was the accumulation of five months of research and hard work." She said proudly. Beaming even more when Harry grinned at her. He knew how frustrated she became while working on her independent study, and watching her revel in the victorious results brought a smile to his face. He hugged Gin a little tighter to him, still a little high on love at that moment, as were they all. When the headmaster looked at her curiously, she continued.

"My independent study last year was focused on Dementor creation and prevention. As you may know, they were created by a group of wizards called the fury in the early fifteenth century. There purpose was mainly politically motivated. At the time, the fury were attempting to conquer some areas in the eastern wizarding world, but the people there were putting up a strong resistance. They created these creatures, as we think of them, in order to kill the moral and motivation to fight back. It worked wonders, but they had no way of shielding themselves. In actuality, Dementors are just multiple pieces from one ball of energy, much like the one we just created, but they have taken form. They have grown strong over the years of feeding on happiness, which is why it took such a large ball of love to kill them."

"Just a moment, Ms. Lovegood." Dumbledore interrupted. "Did you say a ball of love?" She nodded still smiling.

"We realized that a patronus is really just a limited version of the same spell used to create the Dementors originally. So I dissected the spell and reevaluated it to see if its power can be intensified. Harry suggested that we may be able to somehow combine our power. That was really the key. I figured out a way to combine a few different charms so that we could merge our magic externally. That wasn't too difficult, but it couldn't just be our magic, it needed to have the same aspects as the patronus spell. Therefore, we concentrated on converging our magical output with our happy thoughts, essentially lacing our magic with love." She finished. The professors were all speechless, except Remus.

"So that's what you were working on last year? Huh. Well, I can see how you destroyed one, but what happened with the others?" He asked.

"Simple. Since they were all produced from the same ball of dark magic, they were all connected. Kill one, kill them all."

"Oh. Right." Remus said looking around at his colleagues. Dumbledore was now smiling, but the others had yet to get over the shock. "Do you think we could use the same spell on Voldemort?" He pondered out loud.

Harry shook his head. "I don't think so. Voldemort, though barely, is still human. This spell only worked because it was magic and its counter-magic. No actual, natural, beings were destroyed."

It surprised no one that the trip to Hogsmeade was cut short, even though Harry and the others protested that it was unnecessary. After all, they had just destroyed the threat and it was highly unlikely members from the same force would strike again so soon. Why ruin a perfectly good day out?

_Dear Dad, _

_I am happy to tell you that we have finally received our schedule and will have our first match next Saturday, against Ravenclaw. I hope you and mum can make it. Try and bring Sirius too if he's not working. Wait until you see Hermione and Luna! They have really improved since you last saw them play. Hermione is deadly with a beater's bat, even though I think she prefers to play chaser. Also, I forgot my broom maintenance kit at home and my black sweater. Can you please bring them to the game with you. Thanks!_

_Love, Harry_

James laughed as he read the note from his son. He had returned to work as an auror when they moved back, along with Sirius, Frank, and Alice. Sirius was estatic to discover his niece, Nymphadora Tonks, was starting the training program. Thankfully Tonks had a good sense of humor, like her mother, otherwise she may have quit by now with all the pranks he played on her.

"James, we're running that home invasion scenario again, are you coming?" Sirius asked, popping his head into James' office. James stood and stretched.

"Yeah, I'm coming." He grabbed his clipboard and walked with Sirius toward the training room. He was the head of the new auror program and Sirius was one of the trainers, along with Mad-Eye Moody. "By the way, Padfoot, I just got a note from Harry. Are you free next Saturday to watch your Godson and his friends play Quidditch?" He asked as they walked down the hallway. Sirius grinned. As if he would miss that!

Quite a distance away, Lily was sitting with Molly Weasley and Claire Lovegood in the Burrow's kitchen with a cup of tea. Lily had taken the day off from her job as an unspeakable and Claire had decided not to renew her job as a mind healer when they returned to help her husband with his magazine, The Quibbler. These meetings had started to become weekly occurrences as the women really did miss each other's company. Normally they would try to meet on the weekend so that Alice would be able to attend as well.

"I just wish they were a little more social, that's all." Lily said, taking a sip of her tea. Molly patted her shoulder comfortingly.

"Well there _are_ six of them. I don't think I ever had five friends that I was as close to at school as they are now." Claire said, trying to quell Lily's fears a little.

"I suppose so. I just worry that they aren't developing properly." Lily mumbled.

"Personally, I'm more worried about them facing off against death eaters and dementors. I know they can't be any better trained than they are, but I don't have to like the fact that my babies are going to be in the middle of this war." Seeing the beginning of a tirade, Lily pushed forward.

"You shouldn't worry so much Molly, especially now that they've destroyed the Dementors. We didn't even know that it was possible, but they somehow managed it. I don't know how, but I get the feeling that if anyone could find a way to end this, they can."

"Yes, those are some bright kids we have." Claire put in. Molly smiled sadly.

"And how, although I can't help but think they are too smart sometimes. I can't tell you how many times I've been out thought by my son or daughter. Especially my daughter."

"Don't forget about powerful! Sometimes the things they can do scare me to death." Lily mentioned. "But we raised them well. I'm sure they'll make us proud." The other women nodded their agreement, smiling as they thought about the six wonders they had produced.

The following week was difficult for the six lot, as nearly everyone called them now. The other houses didn't take well to having a new opponent because it hurt their odds of winning the Quidditch cup, and they certainly let their feelings be known.

"Hey Potter! You might as well forfeit. You and those other rejects don't stand a chance." One such heckler shouted as the six were walking through the school on their way to transfiguration. They did their best to ignore the remarks, but some of them hit pretty low. Especially when the other students began wearing pins that pronounced that the six lot was cowardly, stupid, traitorous and lazy rejects of the house system. Rather than supporting the notion that they had all of the characteristics of the four houses, it was proposed that perhaps they had none. It got so bad that by Thursday, they had taken to putting a shield around their table to protect them from not only comments, but also projectile food and other objects.

At Friday dinner, Ginny brought up another issue. "Harry, what are we going to wear for uniforms?" He hadn't considered that, but thankfully Remus had and they found a box of shirts and trousers for them in the locker room when they went to dress on Saturday morning. They had eaten early to avoid the other students and made their way down to the pitch afterwards.

The uniforms were black and white with white across the shoulders and white stripes down their pant legs. On the front was a large logo of the Hogwarts crest with a dragon wrapped around it, while the back was adorned with a number and their last name. Harry had to admit that the girls looked quite good in the form fitting sports wear. It was tight to cut down on wind resistance, but Harry certainly wasn't thinking about that when he took in the curves in Ginny's body which her robes unjustly covered.

"Wow Gin! You look amazing!" Harry complimented, giving her an appreciative once over. She smiled devilishly at him and did a little twirl.

"You think?" She laughed. As she took him she was impressed. The tightness of the shirt pulled against his arms and chest showing off the muscles he had attained in work outs. Normally, Harry was a baggy clothes sort of guy, so she rarely got to see the results of his efforts, outside of when they went swimming. She allowed herself a moment to stare at him appreciatively, before he chuckled, bringing her out of her focused gaze.

"I take it by the glint in your eye, that I don't look to bad either?" Harry said. Ginny involuntarily licked her lips and Harry chuckled again before calling the others over. The game would be starting soon and he wanted to talk to them first.

"I think we all agree that this week sucked. For that reason, I suggest we go out there show them that we aren't rejects, we aren't losers or freaks or anything else they called us."

"Actually I think they already know that." Luna said.

"Yeah why else would they be so defensive about their own standings in the league?" Hermione added.

"They're terrified of us!" Ron shouted, getting pumped up. Soon they were all excited yelling about how they were going to win. When they were worked up into a frenzy Harry had them put their hands into the middle together.

"Alright team, let's do this!" He shouted.

"GO DRAGONS!" They yelled together. Remus had decided that their mascot would be a dragon, based upon the tapestry outside their common room. Ron had written to his brother Charlie asking what the fiercest dragon was and had received a reply stating the Hungarian Horntail was the strongest and most aggressive. It was for this reason that their house crest was adorned with a picture of the horntail.

With their energy up as well as their confidence, the six lot took the field on their Firebolts. This was another reason people complained. The other students thought it unfair that their whole team should have Firebolts, but there was nothing that could be done, since no restrictions were set on what type of broom you could bring from home.

"Here come the Dragons of the Founder's Lot. Captain Harry Potter is leading his teammates, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood, Neville Longbottom, and Ginny Weasley out onto the field for today's game." Fifth year, Colin Creevy from Gryffindor announced to resounding boos and few cheers. "And on the opposing team we have Ravenclaw. Captain and seeker Cho Chang is the first out onto the field with her teammates, Ernie McMillan, Michael Corner, Aaron Clearwater, Bridget O'Connell, Sean Donaldson and Daniel Beckingwood. It should be a good match up today!" He said over the cheers for Ravenclaw. Even Slytherin students were cheering for Ravenclaw.

After declaring the need for a clean game and a Captain's handshake the two teams took the field and Madame Hooch tossed up the Quaffle. Ginny swooped in to grab it and headed down the field flanked on either side by Hermione and Luna. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Donaldson coming up beside her. She cut him off before checking to see where Luna was. In one fluid motion she snapped the ball to her right and pulled up on her broom, swerving to avoid a collision with the chaser behind her. Luna had faked a pass to Hermione before tossing it through the middle hoop.

"Ten points for six lot!" Creevy announced. Groans were heard in the crowd. Ten minutes into the game Neville was being run ragged trying to deflect the bludgers that were continuously being hit towards the three girls and the score had fallen out of their favor 20-10. Meanwhile, Harry was flying a grid pattern searching for the Snitch when he noticed Cho Chang following him. He thought he might be able to kill two birds with one stone and amplified his voice to call out the play.

"Swan Neck!" He yelled. Hermione currently had the Quaffle and was heading down the field with Luna and Ginny next to her. Harry acted as if he had no part in the play as the Chasers performed a pattern of passes and loops. As they moved into a triangle with Ginny carrying the ball in the back middle, two Ravenclaw chasers were bumping into her on either side trying to nudge the ball loose. This was it. Harry jerked his broom downward and dove right in front of Ginny and the two defensive chasers. The two Ravenclaws pulled up in surprise at the two seekers diving right in front of them, but Ginny looped a little to the side and put on a burst of speed toward the goal scoring another ten points, just as Chang fell off her broom when she couldn't pull out of the dive quick enough.

In the twenty minutes that Cho was being checked for injuries before she could return to the game the score became 30-50 in favor of Ravenclaw. Cho was just mounting her broom again when a glint of gold caught Harry's eye. The snitch was flying just behind the Ravenclaw center goal post. In a burst of speed, Harry took off like a rocket towards the far end of the field. Seeing his sighting, Neville moved from defensive to offensive and began hitting the bludgers towards Cho. Hermione, and Luna flew patterns in front of her broom, essentially cutting her off from picking up any real speed. Truthfully, none of these additional plays were necessary as Harry had no trouble snatching the small golden ball out of the air, ending the game in just over a half hour.

The six walked out of the locker room only to be attacked by their parents. They had all come, including Hermione's grandmother. Unfortunately most couldn't stay, but the Potters and Sirius walked back to the castle with them.

"So what's this I hear about the kids not liking you lot, pup? Sirius asked his Godson as they made the walk back to the Castle for lunch.

"I'm not sure Sirius. We just don't seem to get along." Harry said. He went on to describe the last week and Sirius frowned. He didn't know how anyone could dislike this group of kids. "My dad said we ought to try and fit in more, but that seems to only make them angrier." Sirius shook his head.

"Listen Harry, people can be stupid when they are faced with someone different. Just look at Remus; this is the only place he can get a job because he was bitten by a werewolf as a kid. Not his fault, and he can't change it, but people refuse to see anything but that small part of him. You six are special Harry, don't let anyone tell you different. If these kids want to taunt you and make your lives miserable, I say you give them a taste of their own medicine. You _are_ the son of a Marauder, after all." Sirius smiled wickedly and patted Harry on the shoulder.


	7. unhappy seperation

**A/N Okay here's the next chapter. It has a lot in it, but I'm working on smoothing a few things out in the next chapter, so don't be too hard on me. **

**lija- Thanks for taking an interest in my story. Your reviews pointed out a few things that I hadn't considered. I'll try to fix a few rough spots when I go back through to edit. For now, let me just clear a few things up so you can continue reading. **

**First off, I look at all of these families as old, except for Hermione's, and in my world old families all know each other, so it would be obvious to Draco that a bunch of them didn't show up for Hogwarts. But I do get where you're coming from, I didn't express that well. You'll see some conflict between the Potter and Malfoy families in the future that should help solidify that point. **

**Secondly, They don't really need to take any of these classes, but they are in an attempt to acclimate them to their school mates and social situations, so yeah they're taking history of magic, but their taking as many as possible really. **

**Thirdly, I didn't want to deal with extra siblings, which is why the Potters and Longbottoms never had more children. Just pretend they became baren somehow. And The war is going on still, I know I haven't talked about it that much, but they went from one isolated area to another, so they haven't had much contact with the real world yet. **

**Snape is another matter entirely, I didn't think about him. I just think he adds to the dynamic in the faculty, so I like having him there. Perhaps we can pretend that he never had a rivalry with James and didn't look for purpose as a death eater? **

**So that's it, please enjoy and keep reviewing. **

Chapter 6

It was the beginning of November when Dumbledore unexpectedly rose from his seat at the head's table and held his hands up for silence.

"If I could have your attention for a brief moment, I have an announcement." The hall quieted and five hundred eager eyes fell upon the headmaster. "As many of you are aware, we have had a dueling club in the past, but it was cancelled after Professor Andrews left us two years ago. This year we are going to attempt a new challenge, which will hopefully provide some house unity as well, and, dare I say, be quite enjoyable for all involved." Dumbledore gazed around amused as he received curious and demanding looks from all around him. Even some faculty members were questioningly watching him. Only the Heads of house knew at the moment, as they had discussed the parameters in the weekly staff meeting.

Dumbledore waited for the murmurs around the hall to quiet before continuing. "We have decided to have a contest, following the holidays, which will consist of a weeklong simulation in which each house will battle another house. Every house will have the opportunity to face every house, the winner of the tournament taking the most battles overall." Dumbledore was nearly yelling this last bit as excited conversations filled the hall. He waved his hands once more for silence. "Now, the stipulations and guidelines will be provided after break, but briefly: matching fortresses will be provided and the entire house will be expected to participate in some form. Now, that being said, clearly there is a quantifiable inequality between our fifth house and the other four. The faculty has decided to allow our Founder's Lot house to pick twenty students from any of the other houses to help them compete in this tournament. Now, it is late and we all have classes tomorrow, so I will say goodnight." Dumbledore sat back down as the conversations picked back up.

Remus was anxiously watching as many of the older students were sending glares towards the six, who for their part were locked in a quiet discussion at their table, blissfully ignorant of the multitude of disapproving stares directed towards them. He still wasn't convinced that this was a good idea, given the school's general attitude towards Harry and the others.

The six had carefully listened to Dumbledore's speech at the end of dinner that night. As soon as he had finished speaking they immediately put their heads together.

"Even with the additional twenty, Harry, we will still be at a disadvantage of over one hundred students comparatively in each match up." Ron pointed out.

"Perhaps the fortress will allow for numbers to be less important," Hermione suggested. Harry thought about that, considering what route would be best for choosing teammates.

"The way I see it, we have two options as far as that is concerned." Harry said, coming out of his thoughts when Ginny mentioned the twenty students they were to pick. "We can claim the best students in the school thus depriving the other teams of them. However, these students being older, are less likely to take direction from us well and could even prove likely to sabotage if they dislike us enough. The other option would be to choose less skilled students who have not shown any hostile energy towards us. These would mostly be younger students, which could also prove helpful in their regard for us as authority figures." The other five nodded to Harry's words, but remained silent, considering the options laid before them.

"I suggest we all create lists of people we believe would willingly participate on our team and could prove a valuable asset in a fight. Once we have those names down we can fill our empty spots with some decent first or second years." Hermione suggested.

"Good idea Hermione. Ron, Neville, you guys start forming some strategies involving four or five mobile units. The rest of us will attempt to infiltrate our enemies camps for ally reconnaissance…" Harry started.

"Harry, let's discuss this tomorrow. It's late and we have charms essays to write tonight." Ginny said, catching Harry's gaze and holding it demandingly. Harry looked disappointed; he really wanted to start strategizing and organizing now, but one glance at Ginny told him not to try her and he sighed.

"You're right Gin, let's go." Ginny smiled at her boyfriend as the other four snickered. Harry ignored their looks, wrapping an arm around Ginny's waist and turning to leave the great hall. Behind him he heard Neville and Ron still sniggering about Ginny's power over him, but a sharp look over his shoulder demanded silence which they quickly obeyed.

After a difficult charms essay the three girls retired to their dorm room. Ginny would, of course, join Harry for bed, but right now he was showering and dressing, so she followed Luna and Hermione into their room. Hermione sighed as she put on her pajama top, causing both Luna and Ginny to look over to her. She caught their eyes and with a huff flopped onto her bed. Sensing that a "girl talk" was needed Ginny and Luna quickly finished changing and bounded over, hopping onto Hermione's bed as well.

Impatient when Hermione said nothing, Ginny exclaimed, "Out with it Hermione, we know something is bothering you!" Hermione replied with a sad smile.

"It's just the same old thing." She started, picking at imaginary lint on her blanket. "Sometimes he seems so…Oh, I don't know, like he cares, you know? Like the other week when we played Quidditch, or yesterday at breakfast when he offered me the last blueberry scone because he knows they're my favorite." The other girls nodded sympathetically. They had heard Hermione complain about Ron before. "Then today it's like I'm invisible and he just…UGH!"

"You should count yourself lucky. At least Ron has shown some interest in you, Neville barely even looks at me. Even when Ginny makes Harry put him together with me for recon work and such, he talks to me like I'm Ron or someone." Both girls hung their heads and murmured about bloody boys and their thick skulls. Ginny stayed silent. She was waiting for the inevitable turn in the conversation.

"You must have some idea what to do Ginny, I mean, you have Harry!" Hermione exclaimed. And there it was. It always came back to her and Harry, but the truth was, she didn't really do anything there, they sort of just…fell together over the years, like it was fated.

"Hermione, guys, you know that I don't have any more experience with this than you do. You know Harry and I have been best friends since we were babies and you were THERE when we got together at the lake. What else can I tell you?" Ginny said a little exasperated at the hopeful looks both her friends were sending her.

"We've all been together since we were babies, Ginny." Luna pointed out.

"The point is, I'm just as clueless as you are. Harry and I just…well we just were, I don't know what happened." Ginny tried to explain. Hermione's look turned from one of desperation to curiosity. Luna seemed to space out a little and they drifted apart. Ginny had begun to get that itchy feeling that she often got when she was away from Harry for too long. It had never really been concern, but she was nervous about the upcoming break, when they would be living apart.

She quickly left for Harry's room. When she entered she saw him sitting on his bed frowning as he scratched at his arm. When he heard her close the door behind her he looked up and a grin immediately crossed his face.

"Itchy?" Ginny asked, as she climbed into bed. He wrapped his arms around her and snuggled into her back.

"Not anymore." He stated before giving her a kiss on the cheek and settling into sleep.

"Ron is the area secure?" Harry asked.

"I double checked the wards, we should be good."

Harry looked around at the others before taking a deep breath and pulling the pin out of a small green grenade in his hand. He counted to three and threw it as far as he could towards the transfigured bushes acting as targets. They were currently deep in the forest where a medium sized grass opening sat, isolated from the school grounds by a mile of trees.

Harry clamped his hands over his ears just a second before the explosion echoed around them. It was louder than it would have been normally because of the ward which was keeping the sound confined to the area they were in.

"Wow!" Neville exclaimed.

"These should work well for our purposes, I don't think anything more destructive will be necessary." Harry said, taking in the destroyed area a few meters from them. "When do you expect the next shipment?" Ron shrugged.

"It will probably take a week. Have you considered the gun package?" Ron said hopefully. He wanted Harry to consider getting them all hand guns as a back up should magical methods fail.

"I'm not sure, I'm still a little uneasy with these muggle weapons. They are difficult to use and volatile. I've read stories about people who have been killed or injured by guns going off accidently. I'm already taking a big chance with these grenades, but they are very effective in cutting down numbers in our favor. What do you think Gin?" Harry asked turning to his girlfriend who looked a little troubled.

"I'm not fond of any of these weapons myself, but my practical side is winning out. We need every advantage we can get." Ginny said, unsmiling. Harry nodded his acceptance and looked to Hermione and Luna for their judgment.

"As much as I wish that we could stick to purely magical means, I'm forced to agree with Ginny on this one." Hermione said. Luna agreed, as did Neville and Harry had to acquiesce despite his conscience.

"Alright Harry, I'll get the order to Fletcher and let you know how long he expects it to take."

The six friends were walking down the stairs on the way to the great hall for breakfast, when a few students called out for them to stop. They turned to find two girls and a boy running to catch up with them.

"Hey!" The boy said, catching his breath for a minute. "Sorry to hold you up like this, but we wanted to talk to you for a minute, if that's okay?" He added when he saw no reaction on any of the six lot's faces. Finally Harry smiled kindly and the others followed suit.

"Of course it's okay. I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I don't know your name." Harry said. The three students visibly relaxed at his casual greeting.

"Oh! No problem. I'm Anthony Goldstein, this is Susan Bones and Hannah Abbot." He said gesturing to each person as he made the introductions. They shook hands all around before Susan spoke up.

"Listen, I know that you don't know us that well, but mine and Hannah's parents, as well as Anthony's older brother work with the Order from time to time. I'm sorry we haven't introduced ourselves before now, but uh…" She hesitated.

"You didn't want to get on the bad side of the other people in this school?" Hermione suggested. The three students had the good grace to blush, before Hannah stepped in and continued.

"Look we know it's really terrible what we did, but we want to make up for it. We are tired of people thinking we can't do anything just because we're Hufflepuffs. We want to show them that we can fight just as well as anyone else." Although he had an idea, Harry decided to ask them how this concerned the six of them. "We want to fight with you in the tournament. I mean, if you'll have us." Harry looked at his friends. The girls were smiling, Ron looked unsure, and Neville seemed to be completely spaced out.

"We haven't given much thought about who we'd like to pick, but I appreciate your offer. Why don't you find us on the train ride home next week and we can discuss some ideas for strategy." Harry suggested, receiving smiles from the Puffs.

Later that night, Harry decided to get the opinions of his dormmates.

"They aren't the best students I've seen, but they are enthusiastic and put in a lot of effort in the classes I've noticed them in. I don't think they'll be a hindrance, but I'm also not convinced they would be an asset either." Ron said as he changed into his pajamas, the last part getting muffled when his shirt got caught on his head.

"I agree with your evaluation of them Ron, but you have to remember that they are the only older students who have approached us since the announcement. Besides every number in our unit is an asset if it puts one more layer of defense between the enemy and us." Harry stated, slipping off his shoes. Neville was conspicuously quiet in his bed and had been since their meeting with the Puffs.

"Neville, mate, what's going on? You seem kind of…distracted or something?" Harry asked his friend. Neville blushed, which certainly wasn't the reaction Harry expected. After exchanging amused looks with Ron they both grinned at Neville.

"Something you want to tell us?" Ron asked

"N-N-No." Neville stuttered retreating further under his covers to escape his advancing friends.

"Come on Neville, I saw you staring at the Hufflepuff table at dinner. So which one is it? Susan or Hannah?" Ron said, and Harry looked at him shocked. Ron wasn't normally so observant and even Harry hadn't noticed Neville's glances earlier. Turning an even darker red, Neville muttered something under his breath.

"What was that?" Harry asked.

"I said, Hannah." Neville said, almost growling. Ron laughed at his friend's discomfort.

"Well staring at her will just creep her out. Why don't you talk to her?" Ron said, still laughing.

"Oh, you're one to talk!" Neville exclaimed, jumping up from his bed. "What about you and Hermione?!"

"W-what? I talk to Hermione." Ron said, sobering abruptly with the change in topic. Neville snorted and Harry out right laughed.

"What's so funny?" Came a voice from the door. All three boys turned around to find Ginny making her way over to Harry's bed, looking at them curiously.

"Nothing!" Neville and Ron responded together making Ginny raise an eyebrow.

"Mhmm, sure. Whatever, keep your secrets, I'm going to bed. Harry?" She said snuggling under the covers.

"Yes dear." Harry said, retreating back to his bed from Neville's corner of the room.

"At least we're not as bad as him." Ron loudly whispered to Neville. Harry glared at them before climbing into bed.

It was with very little fanfare that the students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry boarded the train to head home for the winter holidays. The six lot had found an empty compartment towards the back of the train and settled in for the journey. Ginny was tucked into Harry's side reading a book while Harry gazed out the window. Hermione and Ron were talking quietly together and Neville was playing exploding snap with Luna. About a quarter way into the trip, their compartment door slid open to reveal the three Hufflepuffs.

"Hi!" the six chorused.

"Hey," came the reply, followed by an awkward silence as the three remained unmoving in the doorway.

"You can come in, you know." Ginny said, moving on to Harry's lap to make room. They entered the cabin silently and took the offered seats, glancing around nervously as they did so.

"So, what do you think the parameters are that Dumbledore mentioned, for the tournament I mean?" Hermione asked, breaking the silence in the cabin.

"I expect he'll limit the spells we can use for obvious reasons, otherwise I'm not sure." Harry said.

"My aunt works in the Defense Department at the Ministry, Amelia Bones?" Susan said. Not waiting for recognition, she continued. "She said that the ministry was providing a few aurors to oversee the games and make sure nothing to dangerous is used."

"Hmm, I wonder which ones they will be?" Harry pondered, sharing a look with Ginny. He suspected that his and Neville's parents would be among the first to accept the supervisory role. "I've never met her, but my parents always speak highly of your aunt." Harry added, looking to Susan.

"Yes she's quite fond of your parents as well, Neville's too. She's been so happy to have them back. I believe she's worked with Ginny and Ron's father as well. He's in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts department, right?" Ginny nodded.

"That's right, but there's been talk of creating a new division to build muggle-wizard relations and he's been suggested to head it up. We'll see if anything comes of it."

"You didn't tell me that, Gin." Harry said, frowning. She smiled and kissed his forehead.

"I was going to, I guess I just forgot. Sorry."

"I thought the wizarding law required secrecy between muggles and magic?" Hermione questioned.

"Well, the name isn't really descriptive of the group's intentions. Mostly it would be trying to counteract the deep prejudices in the magical world against muggles. They aren't actually going to sit down with some muggles over tea to talk about charms." Ginny explained, laughing at the image of it.

The train finally pulled into the station and the nine teens departed, saying their farewells. The Potters, Weasleys, and Longbottoms were standing together near the wall. The six sifted through the crowds. After hugs and kisses all around, the group began to depart.

"Luna, Hermione, you two are coming with us." Molly said as she ushered the girls in front of her with Ron. Both Luna and Hermione lived in Ottery St. Catchpole, so it would be easy to drop them off. Unnoticed by her departing family Ginny fell back with Harry.

"I don't want to leave." She said, tears brimming her eyes.

"Me neither Gin, but it's not like we won't see each other over break, and…" Harry checked around him before whispering, "I'll still see you every night." A brief smile crossed Ginny's face, but when her mother called her to hurry up, she frowned. After a brief kiss goodbye, Harry was left with his parents.

"So, I take it things are still going well with you and Ginny?" James said smirking at his son and ruffling his hair. Harry grumbled. He wasn't in the mood for his father's jibes. He already felt awful and Ginny had just left. What was he going to do?

Noticing Harry's mood, James backed off and exchanged a nervous glance with his wife. "The Weasleys are all coming over for dinner tomorrow night Harry, don't worry." Lily said, giving her son a small smile, which he tried to return, but failed. As soon as they got home, Harry went up to his room. His body had begun to itch, and he didn't want his parents to see.

A few hours later Harry started to ache. Luckily it was nearly ten o'clock, so he summoned Ginny to him, but nothing happened. Frantic, he tried even harder, pushing into his magical reserves. Nothing. He continued his attempts until his body was shaking with the effort. Finally, exhausted he curled up on his bed and fell into a fitful sleep.

The next morning Lily and James were making breakfast when they heard a scream of agony coming from upstairs. Taking the steps two at a time, James burst into his son's room with Lily right behind him. The sight before them was heartbreaking. Harry was writhing on his bed, alternating between screaming and moaning Ginny's name. Lily ran to her son's side.

"Harry! What's wrong?! Harry!" After another scream, he managed to choke out two words.

"It burns." He stated before curling into himself and screaming again.

"James! GO get somebody, get help!" Lily yelled frantically to her shocked husband in the doorway. Before he could move they heard a shout from downstairs.

"Lily! James! Are you here?!" Arthur Weasley's voice drifted up to them. James immediately rushed to greet him. "Thank God! We need help, Ginny is having a fit. She keeps screaming for Harry." He said. In a burst of inspiration James Potter sent Arthur back into the fireplace for his daughter. Bill returned a few moments later, carrying a thrashing Ginny in his arms with his parents and siblings coming into the room after him.

"Quickly, bring her upstairs!" James said. Racing back up to his son's room. Bill quickly brought Ginny into the room and laid her on the bed next to Harry. Immediately their thrashing stopped and they moved to cling to each other unconsciously. A moment later the exhausted pair fell into a peaceful sleep.

Lily motioned for everyone to leave, but once they were back into the hallway she couldn't keep Molly from exclaiming, "What was that?!" Clutching at her heart as if willing it to calm down.

Twenty minutes later Molly, Arthur, Lily and James were sitting in the Potter's living room with Albus Dumbledore who had a large tome open in front of him and several more to the side of his chair.

"Have you found anything yet?" James asked, slightly impatient with his great uncle.

"Well it's not a typical blood bond, love bond, or soul bond from what I can decipher. There was one case where two people reported discomfort when separated, but nothing this severe." Albus said checking his head and returning his attention to the book. "I suspect that they may have some type of combined binding or advanced binding which makes it hard to discover the true cause of their reaction." He added a moment later. The parents looked at each other.

"So help me Albus, if you even have an inkling of what this might be you better speak up…" Molly started, seeing a storm brewing in his wife, Arthur stepped in.

"I believe what Molly was getting to was an explanation of these binding theories you have."

Albus looked up smiling, his eyes twinkling merrily. "Of course, I merely wished to narrow down the field of options first." Molly made to speak again and Dumbledore quickly moved along. "However, at this point I have two main possibilities. First, I think it possible that they are exhibiting advanced symptoms of a body bond."

"A WHAT!" Molly shrieked. "They haven't…you don't think they…"

"Not to worry Molly, it requires no such _activity_. It is merely the body's memory of when it is most comfortable. Everyone has this with friends and family to some degree. I suspect that Harry and Ginny's close proximity at night in their youth could have exasperated the connection. Unimpeded physical contact strengthens the bond, and since they were still growing both physically and magically, I believe it may have had a greater impact on them. When they added more intimacy into their behavior, it may have moved their already unusually strong bond to an unknown level. Their bodies, physically need each other for comfort. This conditioned response of discomfort is called propinquus levamentum, but typically only causes anxiousness, irritablility, and depression." Albus concluded and looked around to see four incredulous parents.

"Can it be broken?" Lily asked timidly.

"I'm not sure. Perhaps if they gradually spent less time together, they would recondition themselves, but I can not say for certain."

"What about the other thing…the combined bonds or something." James asked, scrunching his forehead in an attempt to remember what Albus had said earlier.

"Well if that is the case, then I'm afraid their separation will be quite impossible. While the Body Bond could conceivably coexist with any of the other bonds, only the soul bond can dwell where another bond already lies. That is because, technically, the soul bond would have been their since birth and works as a instrument of fate. That said, the only combined bond Ginny and Harry could have would be the body and soul bonds. Soul bonds don't require any romantic connection, despite the misleading myth. They can be between any two people, since, strictly speaking, a soul bond is merely two incomplete souls becoming one. You can live with an incomplete soul, but a complete soul strengthens the individual exponentially."

"So you think they may be soul mates?" Molly asked.

"I believe it is possible that a soul bond could intensify their bodies' needs for one another. A soul bond alone doesn't create these symptoms, as most people never find their soul mate and live perfectly normal lives. However, perhaps you've heard of a man by the name of Armand Allexor?" They all shook their heads. "Well it's understandable as most of his writings have been banned. He was the creator of the horcrux. A horcrux is a removed part of your soul that can be stored externally. I won't go into details, but in his journal he noted that as his soul piece was ripped from him, he felt an irrepressible burn that wracked his body, stealing nearly all his magical energy." Lily gasped. She was recalling Harry's words from earlier. _It burns._

"Yes your retelling of events from earlier caught my notice with regards to this possibility." Dumbledore said frowning. "I think it quite possible that their body bond influenced their soul bond, and their souls were attempting to escape their confines to return to their other half."

"You mean to tell me their souls were being ripped out of them?" James said somewhere between disbelief and rage.

"If I am indeed correct in my assumption, then yes, I'm afraid so." Dumbledore said, closing the book in front of him with a finality that seemed to echo around the room.


	8. Solving Problems

Chapter 7

Upstairs Harry was just starting to stir. He opened his eyes only to be assaulted with the bright light of the afternoon and a curtain of red hair carelessly thrown over his face. The memory of the night before came back to him at once and he realized that the burning had stopped. Sitting up a little he shook Ginny's shoulder gently.

"Ginny." He whispered. "Wake up, Gin."

"Shh, I sleeepin" She grumbled in her sleep softly. Harry couldn't help but laugh. His voice woke her further and she turned towards him rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Harry? What's going on?"

"I don't know Gin, the last thing I remember is feeling like my body was being torn apart and set on fire." He said frowning as he thought about it. Ginny mirrored his face.

"So it wasn't just me, then?" Ginny said, more to the room than Harry. "What do you think this means?"

"It's probably just an advancement of that itching we felt before when we were apart. We were gone from each other for longer than usual."

"Why didn't you summon me?" Ginny said, just realizing that the solution should have been simple.

"I couldn't." Harry admitted. He had started to wonder about that himself, now that he could think clearly again. "I could feel my magic, but it felt like, I don't know, like I couldn't control it I guess. It was like it was already occupied with something that I didn't tell it to do. Does that make any sense?" Ginny shook her head.

"Not really."

"Remember when I was younger and had those magical, umm, explosions, I guess you'd call them?" Ginny nodded, he had only been able to regain control at her touch and reassuring words. "It was kind of like that. My magic was out of control and I couldn't harness it to do what I wanted. Except instead of just shooting out all over the place it seemed to be just holding me together or something." The more Harry spoke the more he started to really understand what he was feeling earlier. "Do you think my emotions made it go wonky like when I used to get upset before?" He asked, more curious at Ginny's reaction than anything else, since she had yet to speak and seemed lost in her own world.

"Probably. I was just thinking about that story my dad told us when we were little. You remember the one about the evil wizard and the clever little witch?" Harry chuckled a little. It was Ginny's favorite bedtime story.

"Of course I do. The witch made the made the evil wizard so angry that he couldn't aim his spells and she was able to blast him and escape. She used your favorite hex as well, if I remember correctly." Harry chuckled and Ginny grinned slapping him.

"That's right and if you're not careful I'll have bats flying out of your nose as well. The point is Harry, that emotions can impact our magic. It's in a bunch of stories, not just that one. It was in the Hag and the Hippogriff, The Witch who Found Unicorn Island, The…" Harry cut her off.

"Yeah I know Ginny, but those are kids stories." She scowled at his dismissal.

"That doesn't mean they aren't true!"

"You mean there IS a unicorn island with pink trees and we've been wasting our time around here!" Harry exclaimed in mock horror. Ginny slapped his arm but couldn't help but smile a little.

"Well, the general ideas are true anyway." She said crossing her arms in a pretend pout. Harry kissed her forehead and pulled her towards him, where she snuggled her head into his shirt.

"I WILL NOT CALM DOWN! MY BABY'S SOUL WAS BEING SUCKED OUT! LIKE A DEMENTOR ARTHUR! A DEMENTOR!"

Their quiet moment was interrupted by Molly's scream from downstairs. Shortly there after, they heard the sound of footsteps hurriedly approaching their door and quickly moved to opposite sides of the bed from one another.

"My baby!" Molly said as she burst through the door and moved to Ginny's side of the bed, nearly squeezing the life out of her in an ironic turn of events. Lily, James, Arthur, and Dumbledore also moved into the room, though slightly less dramatically. However, Harry noticed his mother's eyes were a bit red and she was shooting him sad smiles.

The adults struggled to explain the dire situation to the two teens in bed. But no matter how they phrased it, the catastrophic implications of their plight fell upon, apparently, deaf ears.

"Ginevra Molly Weasley! Why on EARTH are you smiling?!" Molly said when they had finished their drawn out explanation.

"Because you basically said I now have a reason to stay close to Harry." She responded. Harry, too, was smiling and thinking about all the possibilities.

"So we can stay together at night now, right?" Harry said looking to his own parents who looked aghast at such a question.

"OVER MERLIN'S BROKEN WAND, YOU WILL!" Molly roared. Arthur couldn't even subdue her as he too was in shock. Lily was the first to recover.

"I don't think that will be necessary Harry. After all, you have been sleeping separately since you were ten and nothing has happened until now." Harry and Ginny looked at each other guiltily.

"Why do you have the same look you did when you broke my broom and buried the pieces?" James said, cautiously eyeing the two on the bed.

Ginny's eyes made it clear to Harry that he would be the one telling their parents, and he couldn't really blame her. As it was, Molly looked about ready to fall apart. So, summoning all his courage he took a deep breath and began the conversation which very well might end his young life.

"Actually, last night was the first we have spent apart." James' eyes bugged out, Arthur frowned, Lily looked at her son in reproachful disappointment, and Molly, surprisingly, was silent. Dumbledore was the only one who was fighting the hint of a smile.

"You're too young." Molly whispered, finally collapsing into a bundle of tears on the ground. Arthur and Lily both moved to comfort her, while James continued the staring contest with his son.

"Look we, uh…haven't _done _anything if that's what you're all worried about." His mother sent him a glare, she normally reserved for his father when he'd said something stupid.

"_Harry!_" Ginny hissed at him, giving him a strikingly similar glare to his mother's.

"Ahem, if I might make a suggestion, I believe there is a solution that may be agreeable to both parties." Dumbledore cut in, the ever present twinkle in his blue eyes. Molly looked up from her heap on the floor and Lily moved to stand next to James again. "I understand that there is some concern about their affection going a bit farther than is proper in the privacy of their bedroom." At that, both Ginny and Harry blushed a deep red. "Might I suggest a charm that we use on the dorms at Hogwarts to make sure nothing unseemly takes place between our hormone-infused adolescents. It would effectively limit their _activities _while in the room." Dumbledore finished. "Is that an agreeable solution?" He asked when silence followed his statements. Both parents were looking to their spouses in silent communication. Meanwhile, Harry couldn't help but think: _at least it's only in bedrooms._

"I think…that could work." Arthur said, looking to his wife who still seemed supremely unhappy with the whole situation.

"Perhaps we should charm both of their bedrooms so that they could alternate houses?" Lily suggested. She didn't want Harry to be at the burrow all the time, and I assumed the same was true of the Weasleys and Ginny. The only other choice would be to resume their cohabitation, which she would prefer not to do as they had just gotten some semblance of privacy back into their lives.

After some time, they were able to arrange a schedule for the rest of break. They would deal with the summer when it came to that point.

"We'll see you on Wednesday Ginny. Be good, and try not to be a bother dear." Molly said as she and Arthur stepped into the floo thirty minutes later.

"Yeah, mum. No worries." Ginny said just before her parents left in a flash of green flames.

"Harry, Ginny, why don't you two go fly or something, I'm going to start dinner." Lily said, pulling James with her into the kitchen. It was more than obvious to both teens that what she really wanted was to talk privately with Harry's dad.

"Come on Harry, I've got an idea!" Ginny said excitedly as she grabbed his hand and pulled him back upstairs to his room. Once they were inside she closed and locked the door.

"What are you doing, Ginny?" Harry asked, gulping nervously as his girlfriend advanced on him with a very dangerous look in her eye.

"I thought that we should find out a little about this ward Dumbledore put up in the room." She said slyly as she wrapped her arms around Harry's neck.

"Yeah, sure, a little recon work, huh, Gin?" Harry said, chuckling uncomfortably.

"mhmm" Ginny mumbled before leaning in and claiming his lips.

_Well nothing has happened so far._ Harry thought as Ginny moved her hands to his chest. As they continued their snog session, Harry's hand creeped higher up her sides from her waist, but at this point very few coherent thoughts were going through Harry's mind. He was nearly to his unconscious destination when a force threw him away from Ginny with such force he hit the far wall of his room.

Rubbing the back of his head as he stood up he glared at his giggling girlfriend. "That's not fair, it let you touch _my_ chest." He said pouting, which only made Ginny laugh louder.

"I don't know Harry," Ginny said between laughs, "I guess mine's just better than yours."

"No argument here." Harry said smirking.

At Longbottom Manor, Neville had just finished his morning exercises and was wiping the sweat from his face when the doorbell rang. Actually, it was really a "floo" bell, that let them know when visitors were arriving. His Grandmother was shopping in Diagon Alley so he went to meet their visitor with the towel hung around his neck.

A blonde set of hair tumbled out of his fireplace, attached to his friend Luna.

"Hi Luna, what are you doing here?" He said, helping her up from the heap she had fallen into on the ground.

"I needed to talk to you, away from the others." She said moving to sit on the couch.

"Um, okay." Neville said joining her, his facial expression somewhere between curiosity and amusement. He had known Luna for years, just like the rest; therefore, he knew that her logic and practice wasn't always normal, but it was a characteristic that allowed her to think outside of the box so well.

"Neville, I'm not really sure how to say this. I want to tell you something, but I'm afraid it may upset our friendship if I do." Luna said, in an uncharacteristically nervous manner. Neville frowned.

"You can tell me anything Luna, you know that, don't you?" He said, reaching over to give her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

"Yeah, but see, the thing is…I think I like you Neville." She said, rushing it out. She figured that perhaps it was like a band-aid, best to do it quickly.

"You think?" Neville asked, a hint of a smile playing at his lips. That irritated her, which few things could do. Seeing her slightly angry response, Neville tried to correct himself. "Luna, let me ask you something. Do you really like me or do you just feel like you should?" Not waiting for a response, he continued. "Look, a couple years ago I thought about you a lot. It just seemed right, since Ginny and Harry are together and Ron and Hermione clearly will be. I felt like, I had to be with you. Now don't get me wrong," he hurried to add, "you're wonderful Luna, and I care about you a lot. But as much as I tried to convince myself otherwise, I could never feel more than a brotherly love for you, just like with Hermione and Ginny."

"How do you know that I don't _really _like you?" Luna said a little perturbed by his dismissal of her feelings.

"I don't." He said shrugging. "I suppose I'm only guessing, because I can't really see how you would be attracted to me that way. I love you and that's why I'm telling you we would be horrible together, Luna. We are terrific friends, but you need someone with a little more, uh, personality than me." He gave her a hesitant smile, but was happy when she returned it.

"Maybe you're right Neville. I'll think about it, but I really do like you. I could do a lot worse than have you for a boyfriend." Neville snorted and they both began laughing, though Luna's sounded a bit forced.

"DAD! Are you down here?" Harry called into their basement. The downstairs held a potions lab and a training room which doubled as an office for his father.

"YEAH, COME ON DOWN HERE KID!" James called back. Harry bounded down the stairs and found his father leaning over a large piece of parchment on his work table.. "Where's Ginny?" His father immediately asked him, seeing that he was alone.

Harry rolled his eyes. "We do spend some time apart you know. She's in the shower. So what are you working on?" Harry asked, taking in what he could now see was a map on the table.

"I'm trying to work out some possible targets for the next death eater attack. Here look at this." James said, moving over to a chalk board covered in lists of names and numbers. The wall around it had pictures of known and suspected death eaters. "Look here, you see this," James said pointing to the last list on the chalkboard, "These are the locations and times of the last ten attacks. Next to them are the death counts and captured death eaters." Harry looked over the information for a minute before his father pointed to the rest of the board. "These are all the attacks in the last three months. Sirius and I have been looking for patterns so that we can figure out if they are attacking the same places and what these places have in common."

"That makes sense. So have you figured anything out?" Harry asked, interestedly.

"Well yes and no. Some of their favorite places to attack are obvious, Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, Glasgow Row, Downtown London, all of the places with high traffic of wizards and witches. It's really the Muggle attacks that are harder to predict, and that's where it gets tricky. Their prime targets are villages of mixed relations, like Godric's Hollow and Ottery St. Catchpole, but recently they have been attacking areas which are distinctly muggle, places least likely to have any magical contact."

Harry pondered this, how did they figure out a place was like that? Seeing his son's confused face, James continued to explain. "Harry, do you remember far enough back to that time your mother and I took you to your aunt's house? I think you were about four then." Harry tried to remember. He vaguely recalled driving in a car, which was unusual in and of itself. Then he recalled passing a bunch of houses that looked almost exactly alike. Finally, he remembered a very large man, an equally large little boy, and a very thin horse-faced woman all of whom seemed to sneer at him for no reason.

"I think I remember something of that trip. Did I _accidentally_ turn a large boy blue?"

James laughed at the memory. "Yes that was your cousin Dudley and you had just watched Willy Wonka the night before. But do you remember the neighborhood where they lived?" James asked, sobering slightly.

"Yeah, everything looked the same." Harry said nodding.

"Right. They have these developments, I think they call them, where they just build the same house over and over. No witch or wizard would ever live there, because they'd stick out like a sore thumb, anything different stands out. What also makes these great targets is that they are incredibly predictable. There is a routine that is rarely broken. It's easy to predict when the most people will be at home, when they will be out at their bowling leagues or their sons' cricket matches. It's all too easy to plan an attack ahead of time." Again Harry nodded. "They've attacked six places like this in the last two months, and according to their pattern, they are overdue for an attack on another one." James concluded returning to the map laid out.

"What's the map of then?" Harry asked, leaning around his father to look.

"This is a small bunch of towns just outside London with a bunch of development places. They've attacked two in this area, so we're keeping a strong watch on it at the moment. Sirius is on duty there tonight, actually. He's popping between towns to make sure everything is quiet." Harry looked over again at the board.

"Don't you think it's more likely for them to attack a mixed or magical village now than a muggle one, since Hogwarts is out for break and a lot of kids are home?" James smiled at his son, he really was a bright kid.

"Right you are Harry, which is why most of the aurors are in groups around the main wizarding villages."

"Safety in numbers, spreading yourself out too thin invites attack and with little in feasible offensive maneuvers and limited defense, it offers nothing but defeat." Harry recited. James sighed and slumped a little on his arms as he turned his head to face his frowning son.

"I know, it's not the best option Harry, but we're up against a wall here. Do you have any better ideas?"

"Probably. Let me think about it." Harry said turning to leave. James smirked.

"Cheeky little bugger." He grumbled loud enough for Harry to hear him.

Twenty minutes later Harry was over at the Burrow with Ron and Ginny. They had just floo called the other three and they should be arriving shortly.

"So what do you think?" Harry asked. Ron was looking through a sheet Harry had made James copy which contained all the statistics on the death eater attacks in the last five months. It was technically classified information, but the paper had been charmed to be only visible to those keyed into it. Ginny had just finished her review of it and was looking pensively over Ron's shoulder out the window.

"You're making a lot of assumptions Harry." Ginny said, finally shifting her gaze to the boy next to her.

"Yeah mate, I mean, sure they attacked five places in the last two weeks, but it could just be a coincidence that they chose these specific families." Ron added, looking up briefly from the page in front of him.

"It just seems too unlikely. Why would they attack Aubergine, Attley, Auger, Bearidge, and Bernes so close together. And they just _happen_ to be the first five names on the list of unspeakables? Come on!"

"They also attacked fifteen other ministry employees and their families Harry, and they didn't attack those five in alphabetical order." Ginny said stoically. She was thinking about the Willow family that had been killed shortly before their holiday began. Their daughter was going to enter Hogwarts next year, the wife worked at St. Mungo's as a healer, and her husband was in the sports and games department at the ministry,

"It's at least a lead right?" Harry said, toning it down a little when he saw the emotionless face of his girlfriend. It was a face she was prone to wearing when faced with the "atrocities of war" as his mother called them.

"Yeah mate, it's something." Ron said, also taking in his sister's appearance. A moment later the fire roared to life and Neville and Luna walked out.

"Hey!" Harry called. "How come you two are coming in at the same time?" He asked suspiciously.

Neville gave him a pointed look. "I was just hanging out with my _friend_." He said. Ginny was the only one who noticed a brief look of pain and rejection cross the young blonde's face. Luna quickly slapped a smile on her face and bounced over to the seat next to Ginny who gave her a sympathetic smile.

They began chatting and not long after Hermione arrived.

"Finally!" Ron exclaimed, standing to greet Hermione. "What took you so long?" He asked.

"I was finishing this really interesting book on runes…" Hermione started excitedly.

"A book! We've been waiting ages because you were _reading_." Ron said throwing his hands up.

"Yes, Ronald, a book. Some people like to expand their knowledge for that goal alone! Why don't you try it sometime instead of wasting your time on those barmy Quidditch magazines filled with celebrity gossip!"

The pair continued to bicker, as was their custom when apart for a while, or together for a while, whichever. Their other four friends just ignored them and continued to discuss various possible marauder names. This was a past time which they enjoyed for two reasons. It annoyed their parents, except for James; and it let them come up with ridiculous nicknames for one another.

"I like Lucky, Luna?" Ginny suggested, to which Luna wrinkled her nose and shook her head.

"How about Spots for you Gin?" Harry asked her, trying to keep a straight face.

"Spots? I don't even have any spots." She said perplexed.

"That's why it's funny. It's ironic." Harry said smiling.

"No it's not, that's stupid Harry." Neville said laughing at Harry's frown.

"Fine, then how about Pumpkin?" Harry suggested grinning at the horrorstruck expression on Ginny's face at the name.

"PUMPKIN?!"

"You're orange."

"PUMPKIN?!" Ginny asked again looking at Harry incredulous at him even suggesting such a name. "If you dare call me that, I will call you muffin or angel bottoms…" She stated, flustered as she tried to think up equally horrifying names.

"Angel bottoms?" Harry asked amused.

"Well you do have a lovely bottom Harry." Luna stated, shortly followed by a fit of laughter all around.

"Actually, I've been thinking. We're in a low cycle with training right now, and it may be the perfect time to have a little fun at school. What do you all think?" Harry asked, a mischievous smile appearing on his face. He didn't always show it, but there was never any doubt that he was a marauder's son and Godson.

"What kind of fun are you thinking about, Harry?" Ron asked, matching Harry's smile.

"Oh I've got a few ideas, but first thing's first. We need to officially name our animal sides. So who's got ideas?"

"I've got just the name for you Harry." Ginny said, "Shadow. Because you're black and you slink around in dark corners ready to pounce." This name met with general approval from the others.

"Shadow." Harry tried in out. "I like it, it's different."

"This is a lot harder when it's for real." Neville mentioned as they sat stumped for names.

"I think we should stick to more obscure names, that way if people figure out that it's us, they still won't know what form we take, or that we even take one." Hermione suggested. "I was thinking something like feline for Ginny, maybe Feelie for short." Ginny beamed.

"Aww that's cute, I love it. It's way better than stripes or whiskers or, my ever favorite, pointy ear." Ginny said bouncing slightly in her excitements, only stopping briefly to glare at Harry for the last name.

"Hey! In my defense, that was a legitimate name. Padfoot, Prongs, they're all descriptive of part of their form." Harry said, holding his hands up in front of him.

"Okay guys focus, we still need names for Ron, Hermione, Luna and me." Neville said bringing back some order.

"I still think slobber is perfect for Ron." Ginny said, throwing her brother a teasing smile. Laughing at her glaring brother, Ginny continued, "alright, alright, how about ember? You're mostly black, but you have that redish brown fur spot on your back. It's kind of like a dying fire in the night."

"Very poetic Gin." Harry chuckled, "well Ron?"

"It's okay I suppose, but I would have liked something a bit more dangerous like fang or beast." Ron said puffing out his chest. They all laughed and Ron frowned a little. "What?"

"First of all, Fang is Hagrid's dog's name, and from what I've seen, he's a bloody coward. Second of all, we have to practically drag you places when you turn into a dog. You just sleep and ask for belly rubs. You're the laziest dog I've ever seen!" Harry said.

Ron huffed. "I can be scary when I want to be." He muttered to himself. "Fine, I'll be stupid ember then."

It was twenty minutes later before another successful name was found, this time for Neville.

"Yankee?"

"Yeah, you know, cause the eagle is their symbol or whatever."

Finally, Luna and Hermione had names as well; Cotton and Lightwing, respectively.

It was getting late and they all needed to head back to their homes for dinner. Ginny was going to eat at the Burrow tonight and join Harry at his house later.

When Harry stepped out of the fireplace he found that dinner was already on the table. He quickly joined his parents in the dining room and tucked in. Stuffing his face with potatoes, Harry spoke, "We didn't get much farther on that problem than you did Dad, but I think I may have a lead. It's something to look into anyway."

"Harry! Swallow your food before speaking." Lily reprimanded.

Harry gulped and smiled sheepishly at his mother. "Sorry mum." Then before taking another bite he turned to his dad. "In the last two weeks, five unspeakables were attacked and killed along with their families. They were the first five alphabetically on the ministry personnel listing. If I'm right and they are picking off these people, Felix Carrington will be next. He has a daughter and a son at Hogwarts and they will both be home right now." James was silent for a minute before sending off a patronus.

"I'm not sure that you're right Harry. Three of those five were active adversaries of the Voldemort. Their occupation may have nothing to do with it." Seeing his son frown he continued, "However, that doesn't mean we should ignore a possible indicator, which is why I've asked a small auror team to stake out the area around the Carrington's house."


	9. Games, discoveries, and the end of break

**A/N Alright, now I know more people are reading this, so please review. You don't even have to be a member of the site to review my stories. So please, just say you like it, or you hate it, or this doesn't make sense. I'll love you for it, I promise!**

Chapter 8

"Alright you two, up!" James said bursting into his son's room at six in the morning. He found Harry wrapped around Ginny and sleeping soundly, neither having apparently heard him com in. "GET UP!" He tried again, louder this time. At last there was some stirring.

"Go away." Harry moaned, mostly asleep, snuggling further under the covers to escape the light James had turned on.

"We sleepin'" Ginny added. James smirked.

"Fine have it your way then. _Levicorpus!_" He yelled and Harry was suddenly hanging by his ankle over the bed, very much awake.

"Bloody hell! Put me down!" He yelled, alerting Ginny who woke bleary eyed and open mouthed as she was assaulted with the sight of her boyfriend hanging upside down. When she finally realized what was happening she broke down into a fit of giggles. "DAD!" Harry yelled almost pleadingly. James released the spell and he dropped in a heap back onto this bed.

"I told you to get up. Breakfast is on, and training afterwards, hurry up." James said, and as he left the room Harry heard him declare, "I've still got it."

"Bloody father. Bloody morning." Harry grumped. Ginny laughed even harder at her pouting boyfriend.

"Aww, poor baby." She teased. Harry smiled evilly before leaping upon her and she screamed. "Harry! Don't!" She begged as he began to tickle her relentlessly. "Stop!" Her screams were interspersed with her laughter. A moment later, Lily and James burst into the room. When they saw the scene before them they visibly relaxed and James smiled.

"Now, Harry." He said in a mocking serious tone. "When a girl says no, it means no." Then he and Lily left the room laughing at their son's shocked face. Ginny would have been laughing, but she was still trying to catch her breath.

"Bloody parents." Harry said, but a smile escaped him as he climbed out of bed and held out a hand for Ginny.

After their second breakfast, Ginny went back to the burrow for a while and Harry started up the stairs towards the library. He opened the door to see his father in a chair with a disappearing patronus in front of him. James quickly rose and strode towards the door.

"Harry, there's been an attack at the Crawford house in Wilshire. Tell your mother when she gets home that I've been called in for support." He said as he passed Harry on his way out.

"Crawford? Isn't that an unspeakable?" He asked his father's retreating back. James stopped briefly, but did not turn around. His head slumped and he let out a heavy sigh.

"Yes Harry. Listen, I have to go, but we will discuss this tonight, okay?"

"Yeah, sure dad." Harry said, but his father was already moving again and was out of sight.

In the afternoon, Harry was feeling pretty low. He was anxious to hear something from his father, but even more than that, he was bored. Just then the fireplace flashed green and out walked Ginny.

"Hey Harry. Whatchya doin'?" Harry chuckled as she sank onto the couch next to him.

"I take it you're bored too?" Harry asked. Ginny nodded, letting her head fall to the side on the cushion so she was looking at him. "What's Ron doing?"

"He's reorganizing his Cannons cards." Harry nodded and they sat in silence for a few minutes.

"Hey! I've got an idea…How about a game of escape and evade?" Harry asked, sitting up and turning to Ginny, excitement on his face. She met his expression with a grin of her own.

"I call tower guard!" She exclaimed.

"Come on! Let's tell the others." Soon they each had a head in a fireplace and were calling Hermione, Ron, Neville and Luna over. As it turned out, everyone seemed to be having similarly boring afternoons, except for Luna who was documenting her father's latest hunt for the crumple-horned something or other, but she agreed to play none the less.

Five minutes later, the six teenagers were in an argument about proper playing rules.

"It's five seconds." Ron stated.

"No, it's three seconds!" Hermione said.

"How about we just play four seconds?" Neville suggested, finally bringing the discussion to a close.

"Now that we've got that settled, who shall we have go first?" He said rubbing his chin as if deep in thought.

"I went first last time." Neville said warily when Harry stopped at him.

"True. Alright then, how about Ron this time?" Harry said, pointing at his redheaded friend.

"Fine, bring it on!" Ron said, smirking.

"Wait, are we playing with animagus forms or not?" Luna asked as they were heading to the backyard.

"Well to keep it realistic, we should, but for fairness reasons, I'll say no."

"Bugger." Hermione muttered under her breath.

They decided to use the Quidditch Pitch since they didn't have the fortress like they had at the manor. Inside They conjured several boulders, Trees and other objects to use. The object of the game was pretty simple. One person started from the "jail" and needed to escape the fortress (in this case the Quidditch Pitch) without being caught. They'd been playing this game since they were five, but it had changed over the years to allow for their skill level.

"Alright, Ron, you head to the jail and remember that you have four seconds of free time after you escape before we start in on you." Ron nodded and headed through the pitch to the make-shift cell. Harry then turned to the others. "So, Ginny, Luna and Hermione are the best long range shooters, so we'll have you up in the towers. Remember if you can see him, but don't have a good shot, send red sparks to the area he's in so the ground patrol can head that way. Neville, you and I will be on the ground, do you want the east side or the west side?"

"I'll start on the west. Are we scouting sides, or meeting in the middle?"

"Let's start with sides, but signal if you have a visual." Neville nodded and headed over to his side. The girls had already left to climb one of the four towers around the pitch.

Harry had just made it to his spot when he saw green sparks fly from three towers and the other side of the pitch. He sent up his own green sparks and waited. A minute later he heard the alarm and began counting. "One hippogriff, two hippogriff, three hippogriff, four hippogriff…"

Harry raced of into the field, after a couple minutes he thought he saw a flash of red hair and started to move towards it. He shot a stunner, but Ron dove behind a boulder. Harry sent up some sparks to signal Neville, all the while watching for Ron's next move. Ron made a run for it, but was disappearing behind trees and Harry had a hard time getting any shots off, so he decided to just run towards him full pelt.

Ron could see Harry closing in and he was sure that Neville wouldn't be far behind. He dove behind another rock and crawled under a small row of bush cover. Getting up he could see the exit just in front of him. As soon as he was free of the tree cover, he was being pelted with hexes from above and had to zigzag and occasionally dive to avoid them. A mere meter from the exit, he thought he'd done it only to feel his legs swept from underneath him, sending him crashing to the ground and looking up at a smirking Harry, whose wand was pointed at his face.

"Good show mate, you almost had us." Neville said, coming up to join Harry.

"HARRY YOU'RE UP! NO WANDLESS MAGIC!" Ginny yelled down in a sonorous voice from her tower. "SAME POSITIONS OTHERWISE." Harry grinned and began to race of towards the other end of the field. Neville held out a hand to help Ron up.

"Oh great. How do we always end up on the ground when it's Harry's turn?" Ron grumbled, accepting Neville's hand up.

"I think he'd feel bad beating up on the girls." Neville said, smiling.

"When will he learn that evade means avoid, not neutralize?" Ron said, rubbing his back.

"Alright, you're just sore because he took you out before the exit. You want East or West?" Neville asked.

Ron scowled, but mumbled, "East" before heading in that direction.

Harry was waiting in the square designated as the jail when at last he saw the five green sparks fly. Staying in a crouch he quickly, but silently moved with his back to the wall around to the west side. In his head he was counting seconds and when the four seconds were up he hid behind a tree, silently waiting for his prey. Ever since he'd become an animagus, he had more attuned senses and reflexes, even in his human form. Along with that came a predator mindset, that he occasionally used to his advantage, like now.

A brown haired boy darted past his tree towards the fastest route through the middle, which if Harry had been anybody else, he would have taken. Carefully Harry moved to stalk his prey. The brown haired boy was looking around, slightly nervously Harry thought. Neville thought he heard something and turned his head in that direction. Unfortunately it had been a diversion and Harry came up behind him, Elbowing his back and kicking out his knees at the same time, forcing him to the ground.

There was a rustling and Harry rolled to the side, bringing using Neville as a shield. The stunner hit the brown haired boy square in the chest, as Ron ran out from behind a tree. Harry dodged another spell and rolled to the side. He hid behind a tree, pulling a branch back with him as he went. Ron moved around to the side of the tree, but was immediately hit in the stomach with the branch Harry had been holding. The redheaded boy folded over clutching his stomach, unable to breathe with the wind knocked from his lungs. Taking his opportunity, Harry gave Ron a swift kick to the chest, knocking the boy down before taking off again through the field towards the exit. When he reached the edge of the tree cover, much like Ron, he had to roll, dive, and jump to avoid the numerous spells being cast at him from above. He smiled as he took the last two steps towards freedom. But just before he crossed the line to the outside, a wand pointed at his chest stopped him short. The said wand was attached to a rather attractive redheaded girl who was wearing the smuggest smirk he ever saw.

"Going somewhere Potter?" Ginny asked, as she stepped out from behind a wall and backed him back into the arena. Harry was so shocked he didn't see the red beam of light coming from Hermione's tower and collapsed to the ground, stunned.

The rest of them went in similar fashion, but no one managed to escape.

When they came back in they found Sirius lounging on the couch.

"Hey pup, your mom's working late tonight and your dad's still on sight, so he asked be to come look after ya." Sirius said. Harry rolled his eyes.

"And how will you look after me?" Harry asked and Sirius let out a bark of a laugh.

"No worries there Prongs, Jr. I've already been told, I'm not allowed to make any food for you."

"Well at least you won't catch the house on fire this time, then." Harry said, plopping into the chair across from his Godfather, automatically accepting Ginny onto his lap.

"Harry we have to take off. Dinner and all." Neville said, and they each said their goodbyes before flooing out.

"So what have you lot been up to?" Sirius asked, once Ron had disappeared.

"We played a escape and evade, down in the quidditch pitch." Harry said.

"You win?" Sirius asked, looking at his Godson in pride.

"I should have." Harry grumbled and Ginny snorted.

"He's still mad because I stopped him right at the exit. If you'd been paying attention you wouldn't have gone traipsing through the doorway unawares." She said, poking her boyfriend in the chest. Sirius laughed again.

"Taken out by your fiery little girlfriend, eh Harry."

"Shut it Padfoot." Harry growled.

"Oh come on now pup, don't be like that. If it makes you feel any better, James probably couldn't get past Lily either." Sirius said, still rolling on the couch laughing.

Ginny looked down at her frowning boyfriend. "Stop being a grouch Harry. You lost fair and square. Remember what Remus always says. Defeats make us smarter." She said before giving the side of his head a kiss. Harry smiled at her.

"Why don't you go clean up Gin, and I'll make us some dinner, okay?"

"You're going to make me dinner too, right Harry?" Sirius said, stopping his laughter to look at his Godson with puppy dog eyes. Harry just rolled his own and made his way towards the kitchen. "Harry?" Sirius called racing after him.

As the three were finishing dinner, James came home looking haggard.

"Thanks Sirius." He said, sitting down at the table and scooping some of the left over casserole onto his plate. "Sorry I'm late."

"No problem mate. So what happened at the Crawford place?"

"It looks like Harry may have been on to something after all. Crawford was one of the people on that _special case_ a few years back."

"What special case? What's this all about? You told me you'd explain when you got home!" Harry said defiantly.

James heaved a sad sigh, but knew there was nothing for it, he'd have to tell Harry sometime.

"Harry do you remember when we talked about the prophesy about you and Lord Voldemort a couple years ago?"

"Of course, it's kind of hard to forget that you have to kill the darkest wizard of the age." Harry said, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

"Yeah well, for years we've been hiding it, moving it around to try and keep Voldemort from getting his hands on it." Harry nodded his understanding so far. "Well a few years back there was an accident during a transfer, and the capsule holding the prophesy broke. There were only a handful of unspeakables in the room when it happened. One of those people was Harold Crawford." Ginny and Harry's eyes widened. "We had a healer run a diagnostic test on the body, and besides the usual residue of the torture and killing curses, they also found some Veritaserum in him. Which means there is a good chance that if Voldemort doesn't know the whole prophesy, at least he knows the general idea of it, meaning that it comes down to the two of you."

"What does this mean for me, for us." Harry asked.

"Your mother and I will discuss the situation with Dumbledore. If he feels that it is unsafe for you to return to Hogwarts, we'll move back to the manor and hope for the best." James said sadly, barely meeting his son's eyes. He felt like a failure of a father, unable to protect his own son. No child should have to deal with so much weight on their shoulders, especially not one as caring and bright as Harry. He should be laughing with friends about what he wants to do after Hogwarts, not worrying about how to not be killed by a mad man.

The next afternoon found a nervous James, and devastated Lily, and a contemplative Dumbldore in the living room at Godric's Hollow. Harry was over at the Burrow today. After a few moments of silence, Albus spoke.

"I think it best that we continue as we have been. Harry's always been a target. There's been whispers of his involvement in the prophesy since his birth, that I'm sure Voldemort heard. This revelation only solidifies the gossip."

"Do you think he'll be safe at Hogwarts? I mean, I know it's strong, but it's far from impenetrable." James asked, from his place on the couch where he was attempting to comfort his sobbing wife. Lily had not taken the news well.

"You know as well as I that Voldemort can find away around any defenses we set up, but I will reinforce the wards and implement some new security measures." James nodded. "We've trained Harry and his friends the best we can. We can only hope now that it will be enough when the time comes." Albus stated sadly, taking in the heartbroken parents.

At last the holidays had come to an end and the six friends were meeting on the platform to go back to Hogwarts. The Weasleys and Potters had gone together in ministry vehicles. The lovegoods would bring Hermione with them. Through the growing throng of students giving their farewells to family members, Harry noticed a brown haired boy being led through the crowd by his two parents who were taking in their surroundings. Always good aurors, Frank and Alice knew well that crowded places were prime targets for death eater attacks. It wasn't until they were closer that Harry noticed a slight limp in Neville's walk.

"Neville, what happened to you?" Harry asked moving to greet his friend.

"Just my old knee injury acting up again. I guess it hurt me more than I thought when you took me down during escape and evade the other day." Neville grimaced slightly as he patted his knee without thinking.

"Oh I'm real sorry mate." Harry said, giving his friend an apologetic smile. "No worries though, Madame Pomfrey will fix you up." Neville nodded.

"Listen to these kids will ya?" A gruff voice said from their side and Moody emerged, his cane thumping heavily along side him with every step. "Old knee injuries? You'd think they were veteran aurors." He said giving the two boys a smile, well as much of a smile as Moody can give. "I can give you the name of my cane specialist if you want boy." Neville tried to smile, but felt particularly uneasy with the comparison to Madeye moody. He had no intention of having a peg leg, and skin so scarred it hardly seemed attached anymore.

"I don't think that's necessary just yet." Frank said coming up behind his son and placing his hands on his shoulders. "Come on, kids, you'd better start getting on the train."

"But Luna and Hermione aren't here yet!" Harry said, looking around anxiously for his friends. Just as the warning whistle for the train blew, he saw a mane of brown hair followed closely by blonde hair making their way through the crowd of waving parents. All six friends jumped on the train. They finally found a compartment which only had two small first years in it. At the sight of the six lot, both small girls leapt from their seats and darted out of the room, ignoring Hermione's calls that they need not leave.

"So why were you two so late?" Ginny asked as they all took their usual seats.

Hermione shot a look at Luna who was gazing innocently in the other direction.

"Luna was saying goodbye to a _friend_ she met over the holiday." Ginny caught Hermione's inflection on the word friend and immediately moved to the other side of Harry, gesturing for him to move down, so she could sit closer to Luna and Hermione.

"Who is he?" She asked impatiently.

Luna who had been playing it cool up until now, seemed to suddenly give into her excitement and leaned in so that she was nearly touching Hermione and Ginny's foreheads, in a pow wow.

"His name's Daniel. Daddy hired him to help with the magazine while I was away at school. He just graduated Hogwarts last year!" Ginny and Hermione squealed happily as the boys frowned.

"He's kind of old for you isn't he?" Harry asked. He thought of Luna and Hermione as sisters, they all did. Except Ron with Hermione. "After all, you're would be a fifth year, if you hadn't started early with us." He pointed out.

"Oh hush Harry! It's only three years difference." Ginny said waving off her boyfriend's concerns. Ron looked ready to add something, but a glare from Hermione kept him quiet. In the end the boy's gave up and decided to play exploding snap.

"Soooo, what's he look like?" Ginny asked Luna, but it was Hermione who answered.

"Oh you should see him Ginny, he's so dreamy! He's tall and handsome with shaggy blonde hair and gorgeous blue eyes!" Luna nodded to the description.

"Awww, blue eyed babies!" Ginny stated and the three girls squealed again in excitement.

It was another two hours before the three girls had exhausted the topics around Luna and her new boy, and the boys sighed their relief at the change in atmosphere.

A little while later, there was a knock on the door and Hannah entered.

"Hey Hannah, where are the others?" Harry asked.

"Prefects meeting. Mind if I join you?" She asked giving a shy smile to the room.

"Of course not! Ron, move down." Hermione ordered as she moved to the bench with Harry and Ginny, leaving a space for Hannah right next to Neville who seemed to have stopped breathing. When his face started turning red, Harry gave him a swift kick and he released the breath he'd been holding.

"H-how was y-your break?" Neville asked, nervously choking on the words as he forced them out of his mouth.

"Oh it was great! Mum and Dad took me and my little brother skiing in the Alps. Have you ever been to Switzerland?" She asked him. He shook his head fervently. "You really should go sometime, the scenery there is beautiful." When Neville didn't answer, Hannah decided to press on. "So how were all of your breaks?"

"Good" came the unified response. Hannah felt a little uneasy whenever she was around this group of friends. It felt like she was always intruding on some family thing or something. Besides physical differences, publically, they all seemed like the same person. It was very odd the way they walked as one unit with disinterested, yet alert expressions on their faces. Very odd indeed. But they seemed nice enough and there was no real reason to dislike them except that they were a bit different, and occasionally scary. Now that she'd gotten to know them a bit better she was able to notice certain traits that differentiated them from each other. Ginny was very caring, but had a short fuse that gave rise to quite a fierce temper.

She was liable to curse first and ask questions later on these occasions. Additionally, she seemed to be the only one with any real control over Harry. Harry was definitely the leader of his group, but he had a tendency to not think things through all the way. Although normally pretty mellow, if he thought something was right, he would be stubborn in his support of it.

Luna was different, for sure. She would sometimes get this glazed over look on her face like she was seeing something far off that no one else could, but Hannah always felt that despite this seemingly unaware demeanor, no small movement or change would go unnoticed by this strangely observant girl. Neville, like Luna didn't speak in public very often. He had a very relaxed demeanor and seemed to fall into the role of peacemaker in the group when the others would argue. He seemed to have a fairly level head, but sometimes approached things too cautiously. Like his obvious interest in her, Hannah thought, annoyed.

Ron was funny, because most of the time he seemed pretty dense, but he could come up with a solution to a problem in no time. He and Harry were both overly competitive at times, which led to most of their arguments. Hermione, of course, was brilliant, but rarely showed off, just how much she knew. Her one big flaw seemed to be an inability to adapt in situations that went against her prior knowledge. But even that, just like all of their flaws, was minimal. It was as if they'd consciously identified and treated any weak points they had.

"So did you hear that they are stationing some aurors at Hogwarts, even before the tournament?" Hannah asked to the silent compartment. "I saw one on the train just before now. He was all mangled. I wonder what happened to him?" She said shivering at the recollection of the strange looking man with the swirling eyeball.

Harry laughed. "That's Madeye Moody. He's a crazy old Bugger, but he's one of the best aurors there ever was. He trained my dad and Neville's parents."

"So you know why he's here then?" she asked curious. Harry frowned, and she noticed Ginny cast him an anxious look before answering in his stead.

"They are just increasing security at the school. It's about time really, they should have done it ages ago." Hannah got the distinct feeling that there was more going on, but knew better than to ask.

"You know. I've noticed that you guys have a little trouble fitting in. Maybe we could help you with that. I mean, to some extent." Hannah suggested. She knew them well enough to know that they were pretty set in their ways, but maybe she could help them show the school a bit more of themselves as they are in private. It's really their exclusive and cold exterior that kept people away from them.

"Perhaps. Getting to know the student population on a more personal level may assist us in our reconnaissance endeavors." Harry stated and the other five nodded. Hannah frowned. This would be harder than she thought.


	10. Back to Hogwarts

**A/N I want to recognize a couple awesome people who have taken the time to review regularly. Your support really means everything to me, so thank you Karl Skywalker and ProfessorChris. Of course I love all my reviewers, but these two are extra special! **

**One additional point, George and Fred Weasley graduated last year from Hogwarts. I made an error earlier in the story that I need to go back and fix. They were third years, when Harry was a first year, so they would have been just out of school when Harry was a sixth year. Now, on with the story…**

Chapter 9

"Hi Harry! How was your holiday?" Hannah asked jovially.

"Fine, thank you." Harry replied and tensed as Hannah waved her hand for him to say more. "Err, I enjoyed various recreational activities and managed to uncover some information which will prove crucial in my future endeavors." Harry said, smiling as he finished. He thought he had done quite well. Hannah let her head fall into her hands for a moment before looking up at Harry, whose smile had fallen at her reaction.

"You don't always talk that way Harry. What if you were talking to Ginny, what would you say then?" She asked. Harry thought for a moment.

"That hardly seems like a suitable analogy, as Ginny was with me for most of break." He said frowning. Hannah sighed and looked around the cabin for help from the others, but they were nodding with Harry's assessment.

"Hannah, maybe we should give them an example," Susan suggested. She and Anthony had been filled in on their new mission by Hannah when they returned from the prefect meeting. Hannah agreed. "Alright you watch and take special note of how we speak and the words we use, okay?" The six lot nodded, though they thought that this was a rather silly exercise. From their point of view, they spoke just fine in the public domain. It was everyone else who was speaking improperly with casual and familial vocabulary.

"Hi Susan, how was your holiday?" Hannah asked her friend, turning her body towards her on the seat.

"Oh it was really great. We went to visit my grandparents in northern England. They have a farm up there and had a sleigh and horses that took us around in the snow. I'm glad to be going back to school though. I missed my friends terribly. How 'bout you, did you do anything fun?" Susan finished with a smile.

"Yes, my parents have been promising to take my brother and I to the Swiss Alps for ages and finally took us over the holiday. It was actually quite funny. My mum had never skied and dad was trying to teacher her, but she fell and took him with her part way down the mountain. They weren't hurt, of course, but we had cocoa in the lodge for the afternoon anyway to warm up a bit. Have you ever been to Switzerland?"

"No, but I've heard the scenery is breathtaking."

"Yes it really was beautiful. You should go if you get the chance." Hannah finished and she and Susan turned back to the rest of the cabin. "So what did you notice that was different?" No one spoke, but she saw Harry give a small nod to Hermione after they made brief eye contact. Then suddenly, Hermione answered.

"Your body language was very relaxed. You also made use of anecdotes to help with the visualization of your answer I suppose. You also seemed to say a lot of needless information, and followed up your replies with questions which urged the conversation to continue." All of this was said from her usual rigid posture, hands in lap, back straight, and eyes occasionally glancing around her surroundings. Despite her discomfort, Hannah replied.

"Yes that's true. Umm, you see, people like to feel…let in, I suppose. As if you're allowing them to get to know you a little. It welcomes a friendly gesture in return from them. The information isn't needless, it's inconsequential, but inviting. Do you understand?"

"I believe I understand. Might I attempt the exercise again?" Harry asked.

"I get it. Can I try again?" Susan corrected.

"You didn't seem to need any further practice in casual civilian communication." Harry said, looking at Susan confused.

"No Harry, I meant, that's how you could have asked your question, less formally." At his blank look, she shook her head. "Never mind. Okay, Harry, how was your holiday?"

"Quite excellent, overall. I was able to see my friends regularly and continue with some of my studies. I particularly enjoyed seeing my parents and other adult figures whom I rarely see while at school. One day my father and I played quidditch with the Weasleys and it was very pleasant except for the rather severe blizzard which interrupted the game, forcing us back inside. May I inquir…umm, ask, how your break was?"

"That was much better Harry." Susan praised. "Can I ask you why you all speak so formally to other people. I hear you speak to each other easily enough."

The six lot looked at each other for a moment, and eventually, it seemed they came to an answer and surprisingly enough Ron was the one to explain.

"It may seem odd to you. However, we were taught to always remain formal and guarded with people who have not proven trustworthy. It is…not meant to be rude or, umm… mean. It is out of a combination of respect and cautiousness that we limit our conversational topics and openness." Ron said, before turning to look at Luna who went on to finish.

"What you must understand is that for many years, we knew and interacted with few people outside of each other and our families. It is…difficult for us to trust others, but more importantly, I think, we have never required the…social skills needed in obtaining new friendly relationships." It was quiet for a while as each group considered these facts, a few minutes later, Anthony spoke up.

"I say we quit this social training stuff for a while and discuss the tournament." They all turned to face him, and encouraged by their attention he continued. "I know this kid, Benjamin Taylor. He's a seventh year Ravenclaw, very bright. He keeps to himself, for the most part, but he's helped me with a few assignments in the past, on account of the fact, he knows my brother. Anyway, I think he might be willing to help us."

"That would put us at 4 squadrons. I'd really like to get a couple more older students if we could before we break into the first and second years." Ron said, more to Harry than anyone else. Harry nodded.

"I've noticed that Daphne Greenhouse typically stays out of the altercations when the Slytherins confront us. Perhaps we could bargain with her for her services." Harry added.

They continued to struggle in finding another student and finally decided to keep a look out for anyone appearing neutral. As they pulled into the Hogsmeade station, they followed the swarm of children into the carriages which would take them up to school. Thankfully, no attack came to be, while on this return to the safety of Hogwarts newly refurbished wards.

The first day back to class, was particularly boring for the Six Lot, as much of it was review. For them, it was the third or fourth time they had learned the material. For this reason, they contented themselves with observing the other students for possible allies.

Daphne was sitting at the back of the Transfiguration classroom with the rest of the Slytherins, but seemed to be working apart from them.

"What about Ernie McMillan?" Hermione whispered. Harry shook his head, but Ron responded.

"No, I find his arrogance a bit overwhelming."

"Did you speak with Lance Baker?" Ginny asked Neville, who had been given that particular assignment. Neville was the least intimidating of their group, and so was often sent on these communication missions.

"He required time to consider our offer. But he seems rather promising. However, I'm not entirely certain whether having a Gryffindor on the team will favor our interests. They do tend to be a bit foolhardy. Though their bravery is admiral, they rarely combine it with decent thought processes." Neville replied, looking between Harry and Ginny for a reaction. He knew that Harry was a discreet fan of Gryffindor, as were the Weasleys since their parents had been in that house.

"I will consider your concerns." Harry stated shortly, before appearing to concentrate on the lecture, while really thinking carefully about their plans so far. As the bell rang, Harry was careful to step out into the aisle after the other Slytherins had passed, but before Daphne.

Harry, Ginny, and Hermione cornered Daphne in the hallway as soon as they were clear of the classroom. Clearly shocked and fearful at first, she immediately exchanged her expression for one of cool indifference and held her chin up defiantly. They couldn't help but admire her demeanor, as their reactions would have been fairly similar.

"We've noticed you tend to stay out of the conflicts between the Slytherins and us." Harry stated, flanked by the two girls.

"I have no interest in petty disputes." Daphne responded just as curtly.

"Your neutrality in these affairs interests us, as far as forming a team in the upcoming tournament. Would you be interested in assisting us?" Harry asked shortly, noting the girl's eyes shifting warily from side to side.

"I wouldn't be neutral if I did that, now would I?" She said, trying to move around them. Hermione cut her off.

"What if we could suggest a way for you to retain your indifference of us publically, while still being a member of our team?" Daphne quirked an eyebrow to indicate her interest, so Hermione continued. "Dumbledore stated that we could choose twenty students to aid us, and never indicated that they'd have any choice in the matter. If we announce your name with the rest of our team, you may act burdened as much as necessary to keep from having problems with other students. Is this an agreeable compromise?"

"What's in it for me? You obviously get an experienced fighter on your side. What do I get?" Harry smirked, he'd been expecting that question. It was a matter of great importance in the Pureblood world. Rarely were things done without some type of exchange of benefits.

"You get to be on the winning team." Harry said simply. Daphne snorted at his arrogance.

"Victory in school exercises is hardly a reason for me to risk my reputation. Regardless of what you say, there will be suspicion around me following this."

"What do you want?" Harry asked.

"Assurances. I want to know that no retribution will be sought from my family, nor any actions taken against us, if the light side wins this war. Naturally, we already have an agreement with the Dark forces."

"For a school tournament game?" Hermione grumbled, but Harry spoke over her.

"Done." And with that Daphne moved passed them where Ginny had moved to the side for her.

"Well that went well." Ginny said, "Now onto more amusing things." The evil grin that spread across her face just then made Harry very glad that he was on her side.

At exactly six o'clock that evening, the Six Lot entered the Great Hall, as usual and took their seats. Nobody took any notice except for the twinkling eyes of the headmaster who had gotten tot the hall early for dinner. Albus Dumbledore had an uncanny ability to identify when things were out of place. Tonight felt wrong to him. Something was going to happen, but his feelings tonight were of a type he hadn't felt since the marauders were in school. Even the Weasley twins, as much as they may try, could never impact the school on such a large scale, as Albus felt would happen tonight. Naturally, he watched his great nephew quite closely.

Harry was simply eating his meal, unconcerned as he conversed casually with Ron about their upcoming Quidditch match. When the clock struck 6:15 he abruptly put his fork down and turned to Ginny.

"We're go, Shadow." She giggled back to him. He smiled at the use of his new name and nodded once to her before turning to look at Neville and Hermione. Discreetly, the pair of them moved their hands under the table to cast the starting charms on an elaborate network of spells around the great hall. When they finished, they both returned to their food and Harry did the same. A few moments later there was a shriek at the Slytherin table.

"I'M SPLINCHED!" Draco Malfoy shouted, standing up and holding his stomach. Then, seeming to see something on the floor, he cast his eyes downward and began chasing after something invisible in front of him. "My bellybutton! Stop it! It's getting away!." He cried, nearly hysterical as he chased the invisible body part around the Great Hall. Not a moment later, a few Ravenclaws were looking around themselves oddly. Eventually, taking various courses of action. One third year Ravenclaw had pulled his foot up to his ear, showing impressive flexibility, while another Ravenclaw had removed her shoe altogether and was yelling into it.

"I say! Come out of there! There's someone in my shoe!" She complained to a confused looking student next to her. They seemed torn between amusement and concern.

A third Ravenclaw had decided on a more violent approach and was in the process of tearing his shoe apart in pursuit of the otherwise unheard voice.

Next Professor Snape stood and bowed to a bemused Professor Sprout, before pulling her up from her seat and into a rather impassioned tango on the floor behind the teacher's table. While this was occurring five Hufflepuffs had taken to the top of their table and began a routine while singing, "I thought she was a man, but it was polyjuice," by the Weird Sisters.

At the Gryffindor table two fourth years had broken into a dance-off, while another one was running around, insisting a spy was among them. After a few more people started behaving strangely, Dumbledore, who had watched this all occur from his seat at the head's table with a smile on his face, finally decided to step in.

He waved his wand, but frowned when his expected results yielded no change instead. He tried again, before looking down at the Founder's Lot table. Harry and his friends, apparently oblivious to the chaos around them, were continuing their meals while engaging in a light discussion. In a move, which many would consider unbefitting a man of his position and age, Dumbledore leapt down from the raised platform and came to stand behind Ron's chair, directly across from Harry.

"What is this?" He asked, very quickly losing his amusement as more and more students befell these seemingly unfixable spells.

"I'm afraid, I do not understand your meaning, Headmaster." Harry said.

"Don't be clever with me Harry James Potter. Now what spell did you use, it seems frighteningly close to the imperious curse, but I should hope you know better than to use that." Instead of Harry, it was Hermione who answered.

"Professor, I may be wrong, but these students are not exhibiting the usual glazed look that most take on when under that curse. The acts they are partaking in are also strikingly similar to those found in muggle hypnotist shows. Perhaps a muggleborn has come up with the spell?" She suggested innocently.

"And how would you know about a muggle hypnotist show?" He asked, trying to trying to trap one of them in a confession, though he knew better.

"I believe Harry's mother has a collection of shows, on tape, that she attended as a child in the muggle world." Neville answered promptly.

"You seem to know an awful lot about what is happening to have no involvement." Albus persisted.

"Indeed, there does appear to be a coincidental overlap in knowledge between us and the perpetrators in this instance." Harry said, his face a mask of calm indifference. Albus sighed. They had been taught too well, and with no proof there was little he could do to them, even if he wanted to.

"I don't suppose you have any idea how these spells might be removed, do you?" He asked, humbly acknowledging that he could not remove them himself.

"In my experience, it's best to wait these things out. Usually effects of this nature are timed." Ginny said. "At least with the twins, they usually take precautions to limit the exposure of the prank." Albus nodded and without saying another word returned to his seat, and as he expected, five minutes later the hall was once again normal, but for a few very confused students, one of who was trying to cast a reparo spell on his shoe.

Later that night, Ginny lay curled up next to Harry, as sleep continued to elude her.

"Harry?" She whispered. No response, he must be asleep. "Harry?" she said again, this time elbowing him.

"Huh? Wha's goin' on?" Harry slurred abruptly sitting up in bed, wand in hand, while looking around for the expected danger.

"Hush Harry, it's just me." Ginny said, carefully removing his wand and placing it back under his pillow. "I just want to talk." Harry looked at her incredulously.

"Ginny, sweetie, it's the middle of the night!" He said, just a bit too loudly.

"What's going on?" Ron asked from across the room.

"The old married couple is fighting again." Neville returned putting his pillow over his head, as Ron groaned and did the same. Ginny carefully cast a silencing charm with allowed no sound in or out.

"Alright, what's this all about?" Harry asked, scratching his neck and preparing for a long talk.

"Just forget it Harry, go back to sleep." Ginny said, pouting and turning so her back was to him.

"Oh come on now, Ginny. I'm up. I want to know. Tell me." He said, leaning over so he could see her face. She sighed, but turned her head to look up at him.

"I'm just scared Harry. No matter how much I train, I just feel like I'll never be ready. And I have to be, because if anything happens to you…I couldn't…I mean I don't know how to live without you. Without all of you, really." She said gesturing to the others with her hands, "but especially you Harry." Harry kissed her palm that she had brought up to the side of his face. "I'm just being silly." She said, blushing and turning away from his piercing green eyes.

"It's not silly, Gin. Don't you think I worry about that? When the time comes and we go to battle for real…If you…Were you to…" He took a deep breath. "I don't want you to come. I want you to stay safe." At Ginny's defiant glare, he held a finger to her lips to stop her argument. "But I know, that it would be unfair of me. The fact is Gin, all we can do is train hard and hope that it will be enough in the end." Harry finished kissing Ginny on the forehead.

"I love you, Harry." She said softly, looking into his eyes with an intensity that held his to her.

"I love you, Ginny. We'll make it through this. We will, because we have to." He said a bit of determination in his voice. It was at that very moment that Harry knew he would have Ginny as his wife one day, and it was this future that he would fight for.

The next day at breakfast, Dumbledore stood at his podium waiting to address the increasingly quieter hall of students as they noticed his position.

"I have an announcement concerning the tournament, briefly discussed before break." At this proclamation, there was immediate silence as hundreds of eager eyes anticipated his next words. "The schedule shall be posted outside of these doors at the beginning of next week. Morning classes shall continue as usual, but afternoon lessons are cancelled for the activities. Rules and regulations will be posted in all of the common rooms, but I will say now that your spells will be limited to class four or lower, to avoid any permanent damage to your peers. However, shielding charms and other defensive spells, will not be so limited. Please see the posting for further information on this. Finally, I will require the names of the chosen twenty students aiding the Founder's Lot by Thursday evening. I will announce their decision on Friday at dinner. Let it be said now, that if chosen, you may not refuse." With that Dumbledore sat down to finish eating as stares around the hall were turned to the six near the front of the room, some looking worried, while others appeared angry at the thought.

Dumbledore, leaned around Professor McGonagall at addressed Remus. "I will be giving you an additional sheet of regulations which I would like you to discuss with your house Remus. Some of their training will be unknown to the students and therefore unfair to use for the tournament." Remus nodded his understanding.

That afternoon found six friends sitting around a table by the fireplace trying to figure out their strategy. Dumbldore had required their decision in just over a day from now.

"Alright, let's look at this again. We have five first years and six second years in Gryffindor, eight first years and seven second years in Hufflepuff, Eight first years and six second years in Slytherin, and five first years and six second years in Ravenclaw. We have fourteen slots to fill." Hermione concluded.

"It's easy, take the top two in each class from each house and then get rid of the two students with the least potential from the lot." Luna stated.

"It would be easy, if we knew who the top two in each class were." Neville corrected. Luna smiled and pulled a sheet from the inside of her robe.

"We do."

"LUNA! Those are classified documents!" Hermione exclaimed, but tore the paper from her friends hand to review it anyway. Ginny smiled.

"So your mission was successful then, Luna?" At this Luna nodded, but looked warily to Harry who had no expression on his face as he looked at Ginny.

Harry stood from his seat on the floor and walked over to the staircase on the other side of the room. "Ginny, I want to talk to you for a minute." He called. Ginny had seen the look in his eyes before, but it was almost never directed at her.

She slowly rose and made her way over to Harry who sat rigidly on the second step of the stairs. "Yes Harry."

"You sent one of our friends on a mission, which could have gotten her into trouble, without even consulting me?" He said lowly. It had always been a given that Harry was the leader, in charge, but it had never been spoken of in such blunt terms before. Ginny knew her place instinctually and realized she had overstepped her bounds. She was used to Harry being fairly easy going.

"I'm sorry Harry. It was just…we were there outside his office and Dumbledore had just left, it was the perfect time…and Luna had this idea, and…" she stopped then seeing no change in Harry's stoic features. "I'm sorry." Although she fought it, a small tear escaped her eye and for a moment she thought she saw a frown cross Harry's face. Harry stood clearing his throat.

"In the future, Ginny, I would appreciate being alerted to plans even after the fact. Especially, since it will be I who will answer for them if anything happens." With that he moved forward and wrapped her in a hug. "I'm sorry Gin. You know I just worry, is all." He said rubbing her back soothingly.

The paper was lying in the middle of the table when they returned to the table a few moments later. Harry looked at Hermione who was sitting with her head down, as if waiting for a reprimand. "I am leaving to return this parchment now. Hermione?" He asked, trying to keep the smile off of his space as his friend looked up. "May I assume that you've taken note of the important information." She nodded slowly. "Good." He said, finally letting a mischievous grin split his face. Hermione answered with a smile of her own. "Prepare our list, while I return this."

"You're going alone, Harry?" Ginny asked quietly from her retaken seat. Harry gave her a small smile.

"I hope you don't think me arrogant if I say, I do not believe there is anything in this castle which I can not handle. Besides, it is better to limit our exposure to punishment." Luna rose to object, but Harry beat her to it. "You are not responsible for following orders. That lies with me." He said before scooping up the parchment and turning to the door without another word.

Like a hero, Harry matched towards the gargoyle guarding the Headmaster's office, gave the password, and followed the stairs up. The façade cracked like an egg shell around him as he opened the door to the office.

"MUM!" He exclaimed. She smiled at her son.

"Hi Harry, is there something wrong? Why aren't you in bed?"

"I-I-I, uh," Harry thought himself quite brave most of the time, but standing now, in front of his mother, he felt a strong urge to throw the paper towards the Headmaster, yell out that it was Luna and run for the hills. He looked around, finally noticing the others there as well. The office was fairly packed. His father, Sirius, Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom, and well as all of the professors and about ten other aurors were packed into the small space. And here stood Harry, feeling like a small boy, as he held the parchment behind his back

"Harry? What is it, kid?" His father asked moving forward.

Gathering up all his courage, Harry stood to his full height. "Might I request a private audience with the Headmaster for a moment?" He asked, only to be met with silence followed by a loud laugh coming from Sirius.

"Oh this should be good! What did you do Harry?" Sirius asked between barks. At his observation Lily turned a pointed look onto her son who seemed to sink into the floor before her.

"What's that behind your back?" She asked, for the first time taking in her son's posture. Harry responded by moving closer to the door behind him. "Give it here." She said holding out her hand, like she used to do when he had sweets in his hand before dinner as a child. Obediently Harry handed her the parchment, knowing better than to test his mother's temper.

Lily looked at the parchment and gasped as James moved to look at it over her shoulder. At this time, Albus had made his way around his desk and through the crowd of people in his office. When he reached Lily she handed him the paper, without taking her gaze from her son, who was examining his shoes carefully.

"Harry, you understand that this is a confidential document. Each student is entitled to privacy, and you have violated their rights by taking this parchment." Dumbledore stated seriously, looking over his half-moon spectacles at the boy before him. Harry nodded ashamed and gasps and whispers flooded the room, many coming from the teachers. "Why did you do it?" Albus asked.

"I'm afraid there is no explanation for my behavior. I fear that there was a mistake made on my part that can not be undone. However, as you may have guessed, the information was meant to be a tool in our selection of a team for the tournament." Harry finished, his voice only slightly wavering with his nerves. He was aware of the constant shocked and disappointed look his mother was favoring him with at the moment.

"I see." Dumbledore replied shortly. "I'm afraid I may have instigated this behavior with giving you an uninformed choice of your classmates. For this reason I will take partial blame for this occurrence. However, you will serve detention, for the next week, with me personally. Additionally, you will not be allowed to partake in the first battle of the tournament. I'm afraid your team will have to fare without you." Harry frowned at this but nodded curtly.

"May I still train with the group before the first battle, sir?" He asked.

"I believe that would be acceptable." Dumbledore replied. Harry nodded curtly before facing his mother and father for a moment and exiting the office.

"Albus, do you really think that's wise? They are already severely short participants and for his actions perhaps we ought to remove their house altogether." Minerva said once Harry had left.

"They will survive. It is not fair to punish all of them for the mistake of one. However, keeping him from the entire tournament would be an equally unfair hardship on the others." Albus explained. "Now back to what we were discussing. Lily, James, Sirius, along with the other professors will be preparing the fortresses. We will make five sets at the start and any damage they take will remain throughout the tournament." Dumbledore said. A few of the aurors looked skeptical.

"Forgive me, Professor, but how will keep these students from hiding out in their fortresses, resulting in a stalemate? There are few spells under level five which can create enough damage to cause them to defend themselves outside the fortress defenses already intact." A young auror, Dumbledore thought was named Clinton, asked.

"Very astute, my young friend, that would be the case if I were giving them each a castle. However," Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling merrily, "I am not." Letting them ponder that for a moment, Albus moved back towards his desk before continuing. "They will be given a set of materials which they will be allowed to create a fortress out of. This even will take place the Sunday before the start of the tournament. The sets have not been entirely defined yet, but will include something like: 50 medium sized stones, several large boulders, trees, shrubs, and similar objects. Out of these they will build their defenses. Of course the plants will need to be conjured to their specifications on the day of, so the full set-up will be somewhat aided by our teachers and assistants."

"Albus, have you considered…" Lily began, but Dumbledore cut her off, already knowing her concern.

"I have given a list to Remus with a few additional regulations for our Founder's Lot. I understand that many of the tranfigurations they may know would be unfair to use under these circumstances. I have also stated that the quantity of their given supplies are not to be increased, which should keep them from conjuring additional fortress materials." Albus looked over to Professor Lupin then, "have you discussed these limitations with them yet?" Remus looked slightly abashed.

"Not yet. I planned to mention them at breakfast tomorrow." Albus nodded.

"Are you sure they are complete in their restrictions?" James asked, with a bit of humor in his voice. "You know as well as I that they are particularly good at finding loopholes and using them to their advantage." Dumbledore chuckled.

"I have tried to cover all the possibilities, but as you said, they are quite cunning when facing explicit limitations."

Some of the aurors in the room were looking between the small group of people warily, confusion evident on their face.

"Who are these kids?" One brave, though perhaps stupid auror trainee asked. Moody cuffed him upside his head as the parents and teachers turned to face him.

"It is my son and his friends." James said, daring the outspoken young man to say anything else. The others around him quickly learned from his mistake and dropped the topic, moving on quickly to the assignment of their roles in this exercise.

The next morning at breakfast, Remus ate early so that he could join the Six Lot at their table.

"Good morning Remus." They chorused.

"Morning. I have some important news for all of you, concerning the tournament." At this, Harry put down his fork and turned to face Remus, the other five following his example.

"I thought we may have additional restrictions." Harry said causually, waving it off as though unimportant to him. Remus nearly laughed at the James-like reaction.

"Yes, well, here they are: You are not to make use of your physical battle techniques in an offensive manner. You will be given certain materials for building your defenses and are not to conjure additional materials. Your transfigurations are also to be limited. You may not create metal or any weaponry, nor may you transfigure any lethal objects of any kind, nor any that could seriously injure someone. Additionally, you will not be allowed to use your animagus forms, for obvious reasons. No wards or perimeter spells either. Also, you can't use any combined magic spells. Finally, and this is the most important, there will be a teacher under an invisibility cloak supervising within the fortress along with several disillusioned and visible aurors around. You may take no actions against them." At this last point there was an uproar of disapproval, surprising Remus.

"What if they get in our way!"

"How can we tell if it's a teacher or a spy?"

"Why do we need to have someone getting in the way!"

Remus raised his hands for quite, sharing a quick glance with the headmaster who had looked down at them with the commotion.

"First, I assure you that the teacher under the invisibility cloak and the aurors will make every effort to stay out of your way. They are there for safety reasons as well as taking note of how well you work together and whether everyone is helping. They will be in every fort, but only you have been told in an attempt to keep you from stunning them. Moody will be keeping careful watch and will monitor anyone under a cloak." At this explanation they settled down, but still seemed disgruntled. Remus moved back to his table and signaled to Dumbledore who rose.

"Attention please!" He said, using a sonorous charm. The hall immediately quieted. There have already been incidents which make this announcement necessary. All attacks should be saved for the tournament, _on the battlefield_. If there is any attempt to sabotage or injure a student by a member of any house outside of the arena of this activity, the tournament will be cancelled and those involved shall face dire consequences. I urge you not to test this." Dumbledore said sternly, gazing around the hall. Seemingly happy with his results he sat back down, but it was a few moments before conversations began again in the slightly shocked hall. Albus rarely made threats such as these, but when he did they were taken very seriously.


	11. Preparing for Battle

**A/N So this chapter isn't quite as long, but it's more of a transitional chapter. Let me know if you find it too choppy or anything. I want to make sure it's readable. That's all. Please enjoy and review!**

Chapter 10

When conversation picked up again around the hall Ginny turned to Harry.

"You never told us what happened last night when you returned the parchment." She said, raising an eyebrow inquisitively when she saw Harry tense.

"Right, well, it was late and I was pretty tired…"

"Quit stalling Harry and just tell us what happened."

"Okay, I have detention next week with Dumbledore and I can't participate in the first battle."

"Well that's not too bad considering." Hermione said at the same time Ron exclaimed, "Bloody hell, Harry!" They both turned to look at each other.

"It's not that bad Ron." Hermione protested.

"For you maybe, I have to reevaluate and draw up a whole new battle scheme!"

"I'll help you with it Ron, don't worry. It'll be fine. We'll just move a few people around." Neville tried to reassure him, but Ron would have none of it. He was convinced that his battle plan was perfect, and now had to start from scratch.

"Maybe we should think again about our list. I mean, we have to reconsider everything now that Harry's gone." Ron stated, pulling out a roll of parchment and unraveling it so he could reexamine his notes.

"I don't think that will be necessary, we'll just have to adjust for the first battle." Harry said, ending the discussion. "On a different topic, our full training schedule picks up again next week. That means two-a-day strength and endurance training. Is everyone okay with our previous schedule of early morning and before dinner workouts?" Everyone agreed. "Also, our order from Fletcher came in just before break, so we'll be adding additional firearms training on Saturday evenings. Be sure to make any conflicts known early, okay?" They all nodded, before rising as one and exiting the hall.

In the hallway, a taller boy, about 6'2 called Neville away from the group. They briefly discussed something as the boy nervously took in the other five staring at him. Neville returned to the group and the boy walked off in another direction.

"Lance Baker accepted." He said and they continued on without any further discussion. When they reached the outside of the Potions dungeon they found Hannah standing with Susan, Anthony and a couple other Puffs.

"Hey guys!" Hannah called motioning for them to come over. "This is Margaret and Stephen."

"Hello." Harry said, while the others stood silently behind him.

"Err, yeah, Margaret, Stephen, this is Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Neville, and Luna." She said pointing out each of them to her friends.

"Hi."

"Hey." They each said in return. The group was left in an awkward silence, so Susan elbowed Harry. At first he tensed, before understanding the gesture not to be aggressive in nature. However, his reaction was not overlooked by the two already nervous Puffs.

Luckily Harry was saved as Snape strode by and they were all obliged to follow him into the dungeons for the lesson.

That night, Dumbledore was in his office with Remus when he was alerted that the password had been given.

"They're here." He announced, standing to greet his visitors. The door opened and in walked Harry, followed by Ginny. He was surprised to find that it was only the two of them. "Welcome Harry, Ginny. How are you this evening?" He asked motioning them to take two of the chairs he had conjured, while he banished the other four. "As you can see I expected your whole group." Harry nodded as he took his seat. Ginny sat as well after sliding her chair closer to Harry's.

"We are representing our house. There's no need to upset everyone's nightly routine." Harry stated. He dug in his pocket and pulled out a folded parchment. "Here is our finalized list, Headmaster." He said handing it over the desk to Albus, who immediately opened it and read through the names. Remus noticed the Headmaster's eyebrows rise and wondered what had surprised him. After finishing the list, Albus handed the parchment to Remus and watched as he too had a similar expression of surprise on his face.

Dumbledore was far from stupid; he realized right away that the names of most of their selected classmates had come from the list of midterm reports for first and second year students, specifically those at the top of their classes. However, he chose to ignore this peculiarity for one more substantial.

"Harry, might I ask why you chose mainly first and second year students, rather than some with more training and knowledge?" Dumbledore asked, folding his hands in front of him on the desk.

"Of course, sir. The explanation is quite simple. Our battle plans do not require extensive knowledge, but they do require trust and obedience. The younger students are easier to influence." Harry responded.

"I'm afraid we don't want to give too much away, even to a trustworthy person such as yourself, Headmaster." Ginny added.

"Very well." Albus stated, nodding once to show his acceptance. "In that case I would like to discuss tomorrow evening. I originally thought that I would merely announce the names myself, but I wondered whether you might like that opportunity?"

Harry thought for a moment then looked over to Ginny who jerked her head to the side once to signal her opinion.

"I appreciate the offer, but I believe I will decline. However, if you would be so kind as to announce a meeting for us, we would be very grateful." Harry said.

"A meeting?"

"Yes, we would like the opportunity to speak with all of our team members. If possible we would like to meet with them just after dinner." Harry explained.

"Of course. And where shall I say you are meeting?"

"With your permission, I'd like to meet in Classroom 202."

Dumbledore nodded and added the information to his notes. "I will check to make sure the room is available, but I don't foresee any problems with that. Now, I have nothing else tonight. So please go and enjoy your evening." Dumbledore said, smiling at the two students in front of him. They rose and made their goodbyes to both Albus and Remus before leaving.

When they reached the hallway Harry grabbed Ginny's arm before she headed off to their dorm.

"Shadow's itching for some fun. Could I possibly interest Feelie in a playdate this evening?" He said smirking. Ginny smiled.

"And just where do you propose we have this date?" She asked taking a step closer and wrapping her arms around his neck. Harry unconsciously moved his hands to her waist.

"The forest?" He suggested.

"The others would be worried." Ginny pouted. Harry frowned. He hadn't thought this all the way through, but then an idea struck him and he began pulling Ginny towards their dorm. "HARRY! Where are we going?!" She asked, alarmed at the sudden movement.

"You'll see," he called back over his shoulder. When they reached their dorm, he quickly gave the password and flew inside to find his four friends sitting around the work table.

"Harry, mate, What's going on?" Ron asked.

"Nothing. We're having a date, is all." He said still pulling Ginny towards the black door. When he got inside he imagined a jungle and was soon standing in a room with green everywhere. It was humid and he could hear some birds up in the trees. He turned back towards Ginny who was still in the doorway with a shocked look on her face. However, it only lasted a second before she smirked and turned back to the common room. With an impish smile she conjured a 'Do Not Disturb' sign on the door handle and gave her brother an exaggerated wink before shutting the door on his protests.

As soon as the door was closed, it melted into the surroundings and she could no longer tell where the walls were. She jumped when she felt something rub against her leg. She looked down to find a black panther nuzzling her and purring happily.

"Well, hello Shadow." She said, reaching down to rub his head. "You're looking for Feelie aren't you?" He looked up at her with sparkling green eyes, not terribly characteristic of a normal panther. Then without another word, she transformed.

She could feel the animal in her recognize her mate immediately and she purred as she rubbed her head up and down his neck in greeting. After much nuzzling, the two cats took off into the jungle for a little fun. Ginny growled during their game of hide and seek when Harry cheated and hid up in a tree. It was hardly fair, since she couldn't climb. But she had the opportunity to get back at him when they wrestled, pinning him twice. Eventually, they settled down and curled up for the night on a soft bed of ferns.

In the morning they were awakened by a loud pounding, seeming to come from all around them. Harry lifted his head, his ears perked, but Ginny just growled softly and snuggled in closer to Harry. After a night as Shadow, it took him a minute to get his human side functioning again. Slowly, realization dawned on him and he transformed back to Harry, immediately getting rid of the jungle. His departure disturbed Ginny who looked disgruntled, with her ears back and a soft grumbling in her throat.

"Come on Feelie, it's morning, we have classes." Harry said, backing away from his upset girlfriend. He knew that she was probably having a similar problem distinguishing her human part, just as he had, and cautiously retreated from her. A moment later, Ginny reappeared and they both moved to open the door.

On the other side stood an amused Hermione and an upset Ron.

"Breakfast is in ten minutes, but you may want to clean up a bit first." Hermione suggested, pulling a twig from Ginny's mane of red hair. Then she grabbed Ron's arm and pulled him back towards the couches where Luna and Neville were sitting.

"Ron, I thought you were over that protective brother act." Neville said as Ginny and Harry ran off to their respective rooms to get ready.

"I was, I mean, I am, but Ginny likes to egg me on. You saw what she did last night. I mean, I'm used to her being with Harry and all, after all these years, but she's still my sister." Ron explained, shaking his head.

"I hate to tell you this, Ron, but Harry's not the one you have to worry about in that relationship." Luna laughed. "Ginny will do what she wants, nothing more or less."

"She's right mate. You know Harry's whipped." Neville put in, also laughing.

"Maybe literally." Luna added making Hermione and Neville burst into renewed fits of laughter.

"LUNNNNAAAAAAAAA!" Ron moaned piteously, covering his ears, which only caused more laughter. This was the scene Harry and Ginny walked in on when they descended the stairs.

"What's going on?" Ginny asked.

"Nothing, Ginny, Luna just made a joke." Hermione explained, standing and grabbing her bag. "Let's go eat, I'm starving!" She said

"Hermione's starting to sound like Ron." Harry whispered to Ginny as they walked after their friends.

The day went by like any other Friday until at last dinner came around. Realizing there would be no peace until he gave the names, Dumbledore decided to get it over with at the beginning of dinner; so rising from his chair, he held up his hands for silence.

"Good evening. I am fully aware of what has everyone on the edge of their seats tonight, and being the merciful" His eyes twinkled in amusement, "headmaster that I am, I shall make the announcement now." He pulled out his notes from the inside of his robes and adjusted his glasses, being sure to make every action slow to drive the suspense in the hall up.

"Now as I stated before, if your name is called, you may not refuse the position. Also, if you are one of the twenty students chosen to work with the Founder's Lot for the tournament, your presence will be required following this dinner in room 202. Now, without further ado, here are the selections: Hannah Abbot, Susan Bones, Anthony Goldstein, Daphne Greengrass, Lance Baker, Benjamin Taylor, Art Shoebuckler, William Fitzpatrick, Bert Davenport, Owen Marshall, Patricia Cloverside…" As Dumbledore read through the names, the school looked around at each selection, some in sympathy, and others in surprise. The Six Lot found Daphne's reaction to be quite humerous. When her name was called her head shot up, alarmed, but she made no further surprised expression before scowling and returning to the book in her hands. It was about as dignified a response as there could be for a Slytherin chosen to assist another house.

"…Mary Fox, and finally, Mason Lambert." Dumbledore finished the list to a completely silent hall. The first and second years who had been named were all shocked, and some even seemed ready to cry at all the attention, little of which was positive. "As I said, you will be meeting in room 202 after this dinner. Now, tuck in!"

The Six Lot left dinner a little early that night to set up the classroom for their meeting. They transfigured the desks into comfortable sofas and chairs and then conjured one long couch at the front of the room for themselves with a table in front of it. They had just finished this when the first people started to arrive. Hermione leapt up to meet them, but the first years seemed to shrink away from her.

"Oh! I'm sorry to frighten you. May I please have your first names?" She asked kindly.

"I'm Mason and this is James." The young boy said, pointing to himself and his friend.

"Great! You can go ahead and have a seat if you'd like." She said happily gesturing to the transfigured furniture. The two boys scurried past her to a couch near the back. Next to enter were the Hufflepuffs, along with their first and second year selections.

"Hi Hermione! This is Bert, Mary, Colin, and Daisy." She said pointing out the younger students. "I'm afraid they're a bit shy." She added when at their names they hid behind the older Puffs.

"That's okay. Go ahead and take a seat." She said, smiling at the younger girl who had poked her head from around Susan to take a look.

Ten minutes later, everyone had arrived and Hermione retook her seat next to Ron on the end of the couch. Harry stood, and the room quieted.

"Thank you all for coming. I'm sure for some of you, this came as quite a surprise, but I assure you, we selected every person in this room for a specific reason and look forward to working with you all in this tournament." He said smiling around the room. Hannah had berated him for not smiling enough at people, so it was something he was working on doing more often. "This is just a preliminary meeting so that you have a chance to meet us and we can tell you how we are going to set up this team. Ron."

Ron stood then as Harry sat down. "We're going to have six units. Each unit has one general and one lieutenant, in other words, one leader and one assistant leader, A.L.. If you have any questions between our meetings, please address them to you're A.L. or leader. Any questions so far?" No body raised their hand, so he continued. "Unit One: Leader, Harry; A.L., Hannah, Will and Owen. Everyone in Unit One please stand so that we can identify you." Two boys stood along with Hannah and Harry. "Unit Two: Leader, Hermione; A.L., Susan; Bert and Art." Ron continued to go through his list placing Luna with Anthony and two first years, Mason and Geoffrey, Ginny with Daphne, Patty, Mary and James; Neville with Lance, Colin, and Daisy; and Finally, Ron with Benjamin, Terry, Peter, and John.

"Now that we all know who our unit members are, I'll quickly describe the role of each unit and we can end for the night." The students were still looking around uncertain as they took in their other group members. "Units one and three are field units, Unit two is counter-intelligence, Unit four is air patrol, Unit five is ground patrol, and finally, Unit six is counter-attack maneuvers and in-battle strategy." Ron looked around noting the confused looks on people's faces. "Good so we're all clear. That's all." He said, smirking as he sat down. Hermione elbowed him, but was also smiling. No one had left yet, so Harry stood again.

"The Unit descriptions are vague right now, but at our next meeting, they will be explained, so don't think on it too much at this time." As people began leaving, Harry whispered to Ginny, "You put up the charm right?" She smirked.

"Yep, they won't be able to tell a thing to anyone." She whispered back as they watched the students pass through the doorway.

The six were in a small clearing in the forest on Saturday morning. They had woken up early to do their fitness routine and have breakfast, so while the rest of the school ate breakfast in the Great Hall, Harry and the others were trying out their new firearms in the woods.

Harry opened the metal suitcase revealing six revolvers. He took one out and turned back to the group.

"Here's the deal. We keep these on us at all times. Remember to use the safety so that we don't have any accidents. These are a little different than the pistol Remus showed us two years ago, but they are generally the same idea." With that said, Harry took out his wand and pointed at a few trees on the side of the clearing creating some targets for them to practice on. "Ron, can you set up the same perimeter we used with the grenades?" Ron nodded and moved off to circle the clearing. Hermione offered to help so they could finish the perimeter faster.

Neville and Luna each took a gun and began looking it over, so Harry pulled Ginny aside. He pulled out a small dagger from his back pocket. It was in a leather sheath attached to a matching belt. He had disillusioned it so she wouldn't see it. He took the dagger out of its covering and held it out to Ginny. The handle was silver with roses and vines carved into it and a ruby imbedded in the end.

"It's beautiful. Is it for me?" She asked, trailing a finger along the blade.

"I want you to carry it with you. You can put it around your waist if you want." He offered. Ginny raised an eyebrow as she looked down at her outfit. She was wearing pale yellow skirt with a pink and yellow blouse. She had woken up this morning and decided that she would not tolerate winter any longer. They weren't used to having snow so often. So she decided to dress for spring and cast a warming charm on herself.

"No offense Harry, but that belt doesn't really go with my outfit." Harry opened his mouth to protest, but he shut it when she took the dagger and belt from his hands. Placing the dagger back into its sheath she wrapped the belt twice around her thigh, pushing her skirt up a bit while she did so. When she had it securely in place she looked back to Harry. She giggled when she saw that his expression. His eyes were wide as they continued to stare at the spot on her leg where the dagger was now concealed by the skirt. His mouth hung open in shock. He only came back around when she snapped her fingers in front of his face.

"Up here, Harry." She laughed as he snapped his mouth closed.

"Alright, we're all set." Ron announced as he and Hermione came back to the group. The six of them lined up about twenty feet or so from the marked targets.

"We're going to do this in an orderly fashion so we can avoid any accidents." Harry called down the line from his place at the end. "Now, release your safeties." He watched as they each prepared their weapons. "We will do five continuous rounds, break and do five more, on my signal. Prepare…Aim…FIRE!" He shouted and the clearing was filled with gunfire. After five shots each they stopped. "Again!" Harry shouted and they fired again. After a half-hour of target practice, Harry called them to a stop. "Reengage safety!"

Hundreds of miles south of where the Six were returning to school for Lunch, James and Lily Potter were attending afternoon tea at Augusta Longbottom's house. She threw an annual party which was tradition for all of the old magical families to attend and had been for centuries. The Longbottom line was nearly as old as the Potters, and it pained Mrs. Longbottom severely that her son lacked any real interest in continuing their families customs. Along with the Potters and the Longbottoms, the Weasleys, Bones, and Lovegoods were also in attendance. Unfortunately, as tradition dictates, these old magic parties did not discriminate based on allegiances. So just as they had during the war with Grindlewald, the Malfoys, Lestranges, Greengrasses, and Notts were invited and obliged to attend among other noble magic families.

"I hate coming to these." Lily muttered as she was led into the backyard by James.

"I know, but it's part of being a Potter." James sighed.

"So you have rejoined society at last. What a shame. It was so much better without you." A voice drawled from behind them. James spun around, going for his wand in the process.

"Malfoy." James sneered at the pale blonde before him. Lucius Malfoy was a sight they hadn't missed seeing in their years of hiding. Behind him was Narcissa Malfoy, scowling as usual.

"I didn't realize that these parties were permitting mudbloods now." Lucius said, giving an appraising eye to Lily.

"That is my wife, Malfoy! If you wish to leave this party unharmed, I'll ask you to remember that!" James spat, raising his wand. Malfoy just sneered at the wand in his face before moving aside.

"Come Narcissa; let's move to an area less infested with blood traitors and mudbloods." He said holding his head up high as he moved around the Potters.

"Bloody coward." James muttered.

"All bark and no bite, as usual." Sirius agreed coming up to pat James on the shoulder. "Same old crowd I see. At least my families no longer around, mostly."

"Did the Lestranges actually show up?!" James asked looking around.

"Of course! Bellatrix would hardly miss an opportunity to try and kill me. Oh! Speak of the devil, and she appears!"

"I see you're still rubbing elbows in the slums of society…_cousin_." Bellatrix called to Sirius as she waltzed towards their group, her idiot husband tagging along.

"Oh how I've missed our witty banter, Bella! It's unfortunate that you've given all your money to a deranged lunatic. I'd help you out, as the head of the Black family and all, but….I don't want to." Sirius replied, not allowing his smile to waver. He knew how that annoyed Bellatrix.

"Aunt Walburga would kill you if she knew what you were doing to the family! Perhaps I should do it for her." Bellatrix exclaimed.

"Ah, yes. My dear old mother. I hear enough from her damn portrait every time I visit their wretched house!"

"It's too bad Regulus died instead of you! At least he knew his place!"

"Well you'd know all about his death, wouldn't you Bella! You were probably there when old Voldy killed him!"

"HOW DARE YOU DISRESPECT THE DARK LORD!" In a flash Bellatrix had cast a spell at Sirius who deflected it with a shield. Before either one could do more James, Alice and Frank had build a powerful shield between them, essentially cutting them off from each other. In this moment of forced peace, Augusta Longbottom marched over and ordered the parties to disburse.

"Have you no honor?! No sense of decorum!" She yelled. Sirius took this as his cue to leave and the Potters decided to go with him. They had made an appearance, fulfilling their obligated task.

"The old bat's crazy for trying to keep these shin digs going." Sirius complained, throwing his leg over his motorbike, as he did so.

"Well that's the generation she grew up in. Can't do much about it." James sighed. His parents had been the same way, always dragging him to the 'old magic' functions.

"Yeah, well, I don't care for these black family reunions." Sirius had to yell the last part as he started his engine. "See you later." He called as he tore out into the street.

"Come on, Lils, I'll buy you an ice cream." James smiled and put an arm around his wife.

"It's going to take more than an ice cream to cheer me up after that disaster." She mumbled to herself, folding her arms across her chest. "Let's go to Florean's. Harry needs a new spring cloak and some dress shoes."

"What he needs to do is stop growing." James huffed. "Soon he's going to be taller than me! It's all that milk you made him drink as a kid. He should have just had pumpkin juice."

"Stop being such a baby. You're not having a height competition with your son, for merlin's sake!" Lily exclaimed, exasperatedly pulling her husband along with her to an apparation point.

As they turned into an alley, a small whisp came towards them, becoming a fox when it stopped. "ATTACK ON WESTFIELD STREET IN CHESTERFIELD. BACK UP NEEDED!" A voice said as the fox disappeared.

"I gotta go, sorry hunny." James said, giving Lily a peck before taking off down the alley to where he could apparate out.

"Pick up some chicken afterwards, James!" She called to him.

"Alright."

"And…Be careful." She said as he popped out in front of her. She sighed. It was times like these where she missed their isolation most. For ten years she didn't need to worry about where her family was or if they were safe. But she got used to having an auror for a husband before they left, and she would again, in time.

With a pop, she headed back to their house. Maybe she could brew a few potions to pass the time.

**(A/N It's probably obvious, but I know nothing about guns, so sorry if I got something wrong. I'm basing this on James Bond video games and television)**


	12. On your mark, get set

**A/N Thanks for all the reviews. Enjoy the chapter!**

Chapter 11

"The Cannons are just having a bad season. They'll come back." Ron stated.

"They're bloody awful, Ron. When will you see that?" Harry said, rolling his eyes at his friend as they walked to the owlery.

"When you stop dating Ginny, I'll stop supporting the Cannons." Ron snorted. Harry smirked at him, but didn't respond. When they finally reached the tower Harry called down his family owl.

"Here you go, girl. Take this to mum and dad." He said tying the post to its leg before throwing his arm up to propel the owl off into the sky.

"It's strange that your parents haven't sent any news for a couple days, but they're probably just busy. Besides, they'll be here next week for the tournament." Ron said when he saw Harry's frown.

"Yeah." He mumbled before motioning for them to head out. "Come on, we've got a team meeting to get to."

The two boys sprinted back to the castle and up the stairs to a large classroom on the fourth floor. It used to be the Hogwarts band room, but the instrumental group fell out of fashion some fifty years ago and no one had bothered to clean the room out until Hermione and Luna stumbled across it on a recon outing one day.

When they arrived, most people were already there. They had met a couple times already and the younger kids were starting to become more comfortable.

"Hey Harry! Hi Ron!" Two first year girls squealed when they entered the room. Mary and Daisy had proven quite open once they got over their initial shock, unfortunately for Harry, Ron, and Neville. The girls seemed to find their infatuation adorable, and the boys' discomfort hilarious.

"Erm, hi." Harry stated before tucking his head and racing over to his seat next to Ginny, Ron following closely behind.

"Aww, do you need me to protect you from the Harry fanclub?" Ginny laughed.

"Yes!" Harry pretended to be scared and hid himself behind Ginny, who giggled at his acting. After a moment Harry stood up and smiled, giving her a kiss on the cheek and watching her dazzling smile light up her face.

"Alright, we're not doing group work tonight. I need all the first and second years over here." Hermione called out to the room once everyone had arrived. The majority of the students migrated over to her corner. "You're going to be working on shields today, which Luna and Hannah will teach you. These are special shields, so that spells can go out, but not come in. It's much harder than the protego spell, so work hard." She finished and Luna and Hannah took over the instruction. The rest of the older students moved over to a table off to the side and gathered around it.

"The schedule was posted yesterday, as you all know. We're up against Ravenclaw first, then Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Slytherin. The list of materials provided for fortresses went up today, so we're going to start planning out our home base." Ron started, motioning to a plan in front of him.

On the table was a large piece of parchment with several rocks, tokens, and other objects sitting on top of it. Anthony was the first to speak up.

"It seems fairly simple. We just build the biggest, strongest fortress we can and use its walls as protection." He said, shrugging.

"That's what everyone will do." Harry stated, before looking for Ron to finish his thought.

"The single defense structure limits our mobility and allows for an attack on all sides, if the opponent is aggressive." Ron said. Hermione picked up where he left off, looking around kindly to the others.

"Given our tactical groupings, we thought a more open idea may work. Instead of one large structure, we would have several smaller structures that we can move between. In this strategy our smaller numbers will be advantageous since we have less people to cover." The nodding around the table spoke of a general understanding.

"How do you propose we draw them out of their fortress?" Ben asked from his place next to Anthony. He had quickly grown to like the six lot. They were logical and practical. Additionally they were brilliant, which he found to be a necessary quality in his acquaintances.

Neville had been working on this dilemma and spoke up. "The fact is that the materials are not sufficient to build any substantial fortress. Most of their team will have to be outside of it. We're going to use a combination of transfiguration and charms to create some traps for them, while they are combating our field units. As for the members in the structure itself, a bludgeoning spell should be able to grant us entry. I'm sure Professor Lupin will be glad we are putting his lessons into practice." Neville smirked at Harry and Ron. They had big plans where the traps were concerned, nearly all of which would involve sneaking around their containment and suppression rules that had been stacked on them.

After nearly an hour, they had yet to reach a consensus.

"Ron! We can't transfigure to metal, remember!" Ginny shouted over the chatter as she rearranged the rocks on the parchment once again. "Now, look. We still need a rendezvous point that can shield two teams at once. All of these are two small."

"But Ginny, we need those…" Ron started, but Harry cut him off.

"Let's hear her out, Ron. We haven't come up with anything yet and she and Hermione have been awfully quiet over there. They must have something." Ginny smiled at her boyfriend, and pulled Hermione closer to the table with her.

"Okay, we have the aggressive mark in front center, then two bunkers on either side of it a little further back and two more a bit closer together in the back. Instead of the two middle units, we combine them into one larger safety base in the middle of the back four bunkers. See?" She asked moving around the rocks and tokens on the board to show the idea. It looked like a star with the top point sticking out towards their enemy's side and a fort in the middle of it.

Harry looked at Ron, but he was silently contemplating the idea as he looked over the board. Neville seemed to be similarly in thought, but his face held a smile.

"What's up Nev?" Harry questioned, breaking the others out of their reverie.

"This is perfect for the whomping willow idea harry."

"But we're not allowed to bring outside stuff with us." Lance said, looking at Neville questioningly. "And where would you get one of those anyway?"

"They are allowing us trees. If we combine a few animation spells with a proximity and awareness charm, we basically create whomping willows. It's actually better, because we can key ourselves into the charms so that the trees won't react to us." Neville explained. The none Six Lot members just stared at him in awe.

"What class are those spells?" Ben asked skeptically.

"Class three, actually. They are not particularly complicated or dangerous in their normal purposes, like making pots wash themselves. The complicated task will require more magic than that which is typically put into the charms, but between a few of us, it's doable." Harry explained.

"Harry, we need to finish up tonight, curfew is in twenty minutes." Hermione said, anxiously looking at the clock above the door. Harry nodded, taking in the time.

"Are we all generally agreed on this configuration? We can discuss more intricate designs later." There were murmured yeses around him, so he broke up the group and headed over to Luna and Hannah. "How are our shielders coming along?" He asked as he looked around at the first and second years dragging themselves out of the room. He could understand them being tired. It took a lot of focus to keep the spell up and it wasn't an easy one to learn.

"Pretty well. Better than we expected anyway. You'll be happy to know that Will and Owen work well together. They were one of the first groups to get a shield up for more than a minute." Harry smiled at this. These two boys would be his and Hannah's shielders.

"Harry, you have detention in a few minutes, you better go." Ginny reminded him, pushing him out the door. The detentions with Dumbledore had certainly been interesting, though tedious. Harry had learned a long time ago that his great uncle never did anything without reason, so he had expected something like this when he arrived that first night in Dumbledore's office.

The gargoyle moved aside to reveal a winding staircase when Harry gave the password. Sprinting up the stairs, he was actually a minute early when he walked through the door to the office.

"Ah, Harry. Wonderful. Your desk is there, and you will continue transcribing notes from the book on the table." Albus announced, hardly looking up from the papers on his desk. Just as it had been the past two nights, a small desk and chair sat in the corner of the office. On the desk was a roll of parchment, a quill, and a large book entitled: Knowledge as a Weapon: Always know more about your enemy than they know about themselves. This was a new book. He had finished a different book last night called: Casting a Featherweight Charm on the World on Your Shoulders: A Self-help Guide to Dealing with Pressure. Harry hadn't particularly cared for that book, so he was glad it had been replaced.

Two hours ticked by and finally Dumbledore released Harry for the night, when Harry's itching started to become painful. As he was leaving Harry looked at the parchment left on the desk where he had been taking notes and turned to face Dumbledore again.

"Professor, I wonder if I could keep my notes from tonight?" He asked, a little timidly, unsure of whether or not the question was appropriate.

"Certainly, Harry. Please, do." Albus said, gesturing to the desk in the corner. Harry quickly grabbed up his notes and rushed out the door, not stopping until he reached his dormitory. When he walked in the door he was immediately assaulted by flying red hair and he fell to the ground as someone collided with him. Of course, he knew it was Ginny, especially when the pain immediately left him, despite his being tackled.

"Missed you too, Gin." He said rubbing her back comfortingly.

"These are really too long. Maybe he would let me come with you." Ginny asked, peeking up at him through her auburn hair.

"I don't think so, Gin. We'll survive. Don't worry." He said.

"Ginny, get off of him already. Let the poor guy stand up, won't ya?" Ron said, taking his sister's arm and trying to pull her to her feet. Ginny, however, seemed to latch on even tighter to Harry, refusing to let go of him. Harry for his part wasn't too keen on losing contact with her either. Eventually, Ron gave up with a huff and moved back to the couch to sit next to Hermione.

A few minutes later, the pair managed to move themselves into the armchair where Ginny found a comfortable seat on Harry's lap. Looking around the room for the first time since he returned, Harry noticed that both Neville and Luna were missing.

"Where are Luna and Neville?" He asked Hermione. Ginny was tucked under his chin now, half asleep already.

"Neville should be back soon. Hannah asked him to help her with an assignment for charms in the library." She paused here to share a smirk with Harry and Ron. "Luna is up in our room. She got a letter from Daniel." No further explanation was required. Ever since their return, every other night, Luna would get a letter and race up to her room to read it and write a return. Harry was glad that she had found someone she liked. He worried that she might feel bad when Neville told him about her visit over break. However, he still didn't care much for her seeing someone so much older. She was his little sister, for all intents and purposes, if she got hurt, this Daniel would have three angry boys to answer to. Harry checked his watch. It was five minutes to curfew. Neville would be back any minute.

"Rising from his seat, he cradled a now sleeping Ginny in his arms. "I'm heading to bed. I'm beat."

"Sure, mate. Night." Ron said.

"Goodnight, Harry." Hermione replied as well, smiling at the couple as they moved towards the staircase for the boy's room.

"Chess, 'Mione?" Ron asked. Hermione rolled her eyes but smiled and moved to sit across from Ron.

Ron set up the chess board and started pulling out the pieces for his side.

"So, Neville and Hannah, huh?" Ron said casually, placing his pawns.

"Yup." Hermione responded distractedly.

"And Luna and Daniel." He added. Hermione looked up then, but Ron was pointedly staring at his pieces.

"Yes?" Hermione said, questioningly trying to figure out why Ron was bringing this up now.

"And of course there's Harry and…"

"RON!" Hermione interrupted. "What are you getting at?" When Ron looked up his face was a shade of red only a Weasley could reach.

"I, uh…I just meant. We're the only ones left without anyone." Ron stuttered bashfully. Hermione frowned.

"I suppose that's true."

"Do you ever wish you had someone?" He asked, barely loud enough for Hermione to hear.

"I wish I had _someone_." She said, smiling slyly at the embarrassed and bumbling boy before her.

"Who…" Ron asked looking up.

"Oh for Merlin's sake Ronald, come here!" Hermione shouted exasperatedly, pulling Ron over to her by his shirt collar and kissing him soundly.

"It's about time mate!" Came a voice from the entrance. The two blushing teens broke apart and looked over to find a grinning Neville. He dropped his bag by the door laughed at their faces as he strode over to the staircase. "Don't let me interrupt, please continue." He chuckled as he closed the door behind him. Ron and Hermione were left alone again.

"That was brilliant!" Ron exclaimed, finally breaking the silence and grinning from ear to ear. Hermione smiled shyly at him. She normally wasn't so forward, but she really couldn't wait any longer.

"So, are we…" She started in a whisper.

"together?" Ron finished, placing a finger under her chin so that she would look at him. "I'd like that, if you would." He said, holding her eyes. Hermione grinned, some of her confidence from earlier returning to her.

"Of course I would! Ron, you great dolt, I've loved you for ages and you wonder whether I want to be with you!" At Ron's shocked expression, Hermione realized her mistake, and she tried to back-peddle. "I m-mean, like you…"

"You love me?" Ron asked, quietly, more to himself than to Hermione.

"Ron, I…" Hermione started to say.

"You love me?" Ron repeated, disbelievingly. Hermione was close to tears now, thinking she ruined their relationship before it had even begun. When a single tear escaped her eye and rolled down her cheek, Ron snapped out of his daze. He gently moved his thumb to brush away the tear and leaned in to kiss her forehead. "I love you too, Hermione." He whispered to her. He heard a choked sob and leaned back so he could see her face. Her eyes were wide irritated by tears and her mouth hung open with a piece of wild hair caught in it. He thought she looked beautiful. He moved the hair away from her mouth, which shook her back into awareness. Then, the biggest grin he had ever seen spread across her face and she leapt upon him, crashing her lips to his. This was the greatest night of his life. That was his last coherent thought until they split apart again for bed.

Ginny was looking back and forth between Ron and Hermione. They were sitting in their usual places at the breakfast table. Ron was talking to Harry about their upcoming Quidditch match after the tournament and Hermione was reading a book. Everything seemed normal, but occasionally one of them would sneak a glance at the other and their lips would twitch up as if they were fighting a smile. Something was up, she decided, and she wanted to know what it was.

"Alright, Hermione, what's going on?" Ginny asked. Down the table from her Neville chuckled quietly and both Ron and Hermione shot him a look.

"I don't know what you mean." Hermione said coolly facing Ginny. She let out a frustrated growl.

"Woah, easy there Feelie." Harry said, rubbing her back and trying not to laugh at his wound up girlfriend. Ron and Hermione looked at each other as if asking a silent question and then Ron shrugged and Hermione sighed, but a smile was appearing on her face.

"Well, we didn't want to make a big deal of it or anything, but last night, Ron and I…" Hermione didn't get to finish because Ginny let out a loud shriek before leaping from her seat and going over to hug Hermione and Ron.

"Finally!" She screamed. Harry and Neville were laughing at Ron and Hermione's shocked faces, while Luna had moved to give Hermione a hug as well. It wasn't until after a round of congratulations that they realized the entire hall was staring at them. Ginny huffed and put her hands on her hips, apparently staring down the entire school.

"Alright, show's over! Stop gawking!" She shouted before sitting back in her chair next to Harry, who was once again laughing. "What?!" She asked pushing his shoulder.

"I think we all need to have a little fun tonight. Who's up for a romp around the grounds after curfew?" Harry asked. "Ember?"

Ron grinned. "I'm in. How about you Lightwing?" He said turning to Hermione. She nodded and looked to Luna.

"Cotton has been quite antsy for a night out, so yes I'm in." She said and then turned to Neville. "What about Yankee?"

"It would be nice to stretch my wings a little."

"And I think everyone knows that Feelie is in need of some exercise." Harry said, chuckling a little. Ginny huffed at everyone laughing at her.

"It's not my fault. Feelie hardly ever gets to play anymore."

"Good, it's settled then." Harry said and then stood and moved up to the teacher's table. He stopped in front of Dumbledore and motioned for Remus to join them. Once he was there, Harry put up a privacy charm so that only the three of them could hear.

"Normally, I prefer not to cause a spectacle at breakfast, Harry." Albus said, but he was smiling. "I assume there is something you need?"

"Yes, there is. I want permission to take my group out onto the grounds tonight after curfew." Remus looked shocked, but as usual Dumbledore seemed unsurprised by the strange request.

"May I ask why?" The headmaster said, though it was hardly a question.

"Our inner beasts are feeling a little cramped and need to stretch. I'm afraid their anxiousness is starting to leak out into our emotions." Harry explained, looking pointedly at the professor to get across his meaning. Remus smiled, he could certainly relate to that.

"I will grant this on two conditions." Albus started and Harry nodded his consent. "First, that you will stay together and remain on Hogwarts grounds. Second, that you will limit yourselves to the back grounds where the other students aren't likely to spy you from their windows."

"Both reasonable requests, Professor," Harry smiled, "and I agree to those terms." Dumbledore nodded, his eyes twinkling.

"Are the Marauders rising again tonight?" Remus asked, cryptically, though no one who could hear lacked any understanding.

"Have no fear, professors. I assure you our plans for this evening are innocuous." With that Harry smiled and released the bubble around them. He turned around and headed back to his table, ignoring the staring students, leaving Dumbledore and Remus to deal with their curious colleagues.

"What was that about, Albus?" Minerva asked. Remus shared a look with Dumbledore before retreating to his seat.

"Just a minor conference between a student and teacher, Minerva. Nothing to worry about." Albus smiled and returned to eating his breakfast.

The week passed in a relative blur for the Six Lot. They would exercise, attend classes, meet with their team, and research. Additionally, Harry continued his detentions with Albus.

Their teammates were becoming far more relaxed around them which was affecting the school positively. If the first and second years weren't afraid of them, then the older students had little choice but to follow their lead. They still weren't on friendly terms with most of the students, but at least none of them were running in fear when they saw them anymore.

That Saturday at dinner, the Six Lot entered the great hall as a unit, as usual. Although, they took a different route to their table this time. Instead of taking the center aisle, they moved to the left so that they would go by the Hufflepuff table. All the eyes in the hall followed them as they came to a stop near the first years.

"Hey Colin. You left this at our meeting last night." Harry said, holding out a textbook for the boy.

"Thanks Harry!" He replied beaming and taking the book from him.

"No problem. See you tomorrow." Harry said before moving towards his table with the others. Colin waved and turned back to his friends. A fourth year down the table sneered at the boy.

"He's fraternizing with the enemy. They probably have him spying on us!" He shouted. Soon there was an uproar around the hall as many of the other houses began to realize this possibility. Dumbledore quickly stood to quell the situation before it got out of hand. Using a sonorous charm on his voice he began to speak.

"SILENCE!" The hall quieted. "I understand that emotions are running high with the tournament starting tomorrow, but that is no excuse for turning on members of your own house. These are your fellow students, let me remind you. This is a game. They are not your enemy." Dumbledore looked around seemingly staring each student in the eye. "Do not fill your minds with theories of espionage and scoundrels. Have faith that your fellow students will be fair and honest." With that Dumbledore retook his seat. There were general murmurs of disbelief, but they were quiet, as none were foolish enough to test the headmaster.

The next day at breakfast there was a noticeable change in the great hall. Those who were working with the Founder's Lot were sitting together at their tables, separate from the rest of their house. Dumbledore frowned at the change, but recognized that he could expect little else while the competition continued. When the meal was finished, he rose from his seat.

"If I may have your attention, we have a long day ahead of us and I would like to begin." The hall was silent as the students waited for the headmaster to continue. "In a few minutes we will all go outside where we have several aurors assigned to each house. Down in the flat area near the Quidditch Pitch you will find seven large squares outlined in your house colors. These are your allotted plots for building your defenses. There are two additional white-outlined plots facing each other. These are where your plots will be located during battles. Be sure to take in the dimensions and distance between the plots, so you can plan your defenses accordingly. The teachers and aurors are there to help you to some extent, but you will be responsible for the majority of the work. Remember that whatever you have built by dinner today will be your defenses for the entirety of the tournament. You will not be permitted to make changes to your fortresses between battles." Little of what he was saying was news to them, but there were still groans that could be heard at this pronouncement.

After a few moments, he continued. "It should be obvious, but just as a reminder: Ravenclaw, your plot is blue, Gryffindor, red, Hufflepuff, yellow, Slytherin, green, and Founder's Lot, black. Now, go out and enjoy the day!" He said, watching as students began running from the hall. He noticed that the Founder's Lot group was slowly converging at the double doors.

"Come on Albus, we have to get down there." Minerva said shortly, pulling on his sleeve. She was always such a pushy woman. Albus smiled to himself.

"Of course, Minerva. May I escort you?" He said holding out his arm for her to take.

"Oh, you old flirt." Minerva said, but smiled as she took his arm, following the other teachers from the room.

The other houses were well into their frenzy of activity when the Founder's Lot and their team finally reached their plot. Their plot of land was about a 500 foot by five hundred foot square. In the middle of their outlined land was a pile of rocks, about fifteen good sized boulders and several other things. They knew that the teachers were meant to put in the trees and shrubs, so those were of course absent.

Once everyone was inside the square, Luna and Hermione quickly put up a notice-me-not spell all around the perimeter. It wouldn't do well to have the other teams see where they were setting up their traps. Harry turned to the first and second years.

"Unfortunately, most of this work, you guys can't help with too much, so why don't you go have fun over by the lake or something. Just be back here by noon so we can show you around." Some of the younger students seemed disgruntled, but most were happy to go off and do something fun. Once they were away, Harry turned to the older students and his friends. "Ready?" They all nodded. They had planned this out so well that each person was fully aware of their roles.

Ron and Harry began levitating the boulders around. They had two boulders next to each other near the front, where their aggressive bunker would be. Then they had two more sets of paired boulders about 100 feet behind that and to the sides. They put three boulders a piece in the back two bunkers and the three largest boulders stood next to each other in a wall in the middle of the pentagram shaped bunkers. While they were doing this Hermione and Ginny were building trenches. Blasting out and then smoothing holes behind each wall of boulders. Luna and Neville were blasting and smoothing routes between the aggressive bunker and the two behind it, so that they could move quickly and easily between the two.

Hannah and Susan had brought in an auror and were having them put in four trees in a line across the plot, behind the aggressive bunker and in front of the rest of the bunkers. They had two tall pine trees on the outside and two willow trees in the middle. One willow tree to either side of the aggressive bunker and a little behind. Then they had them plant the shrubberies along outside, in the front of the trenches between the front three bunkers. While this was happening, the rest of the team was filling in openings in the boulders with the smaller stones.

Anthony and Ben were pushing some of the rocks into the ground out in front, so that only about half of it was above ground and then placed notice-me-not spells on them. They were also blasting some holes in the ground and covering them up with that spell. Hopefully, these traps would impede an attack on foot. Once the trees were planted, Harry took Ginny's hand. Because of their bond, their magic was stronger than the others, so they could perform the necessary spells with less impact to their magical reserves.

"Ready, Gin?" Harry asked. She nodded. They began concentrating on the Willow tree closest to them. It took them about ten minutes to perform all the necessary spells, and Hermione had to stun it afterwards so that the tree wouldn't attack anyone before they were keyed into it. They did the same with the second willow tree. They had about fifteen minutes until the rest of their team was due to return, so they decided to take a break.

Outside, James was laughing at the irritated look on Minerva's face when she couldn't see what they were doing on their plot. Every time she tried to look, she would have an inclination to look in another direction.

"This is not funny, James Potter!" She scowled. "They could be breaking the rules and we wouldn't know about it." She stated.

"Don't worry. Jenks and Downing are in there with them, setting up the trees. They'll keep an eye on them." His laughter cut off when he noticed the red headed beauty walking towards him. "Lily! You're here!" He eagerly ran to her and wrapped her in a hug.

"I told you I would be, James." She laughed at his exuberance. "I just needed to finish some stuff at work before I could take the time off." She said, and then had to stifle a yawn. She'd been at the office since yesterday morning trying to get all of her work caught up before she left.

"But I missed you." He pouted adorably.

"I missed you too." She said, yawning again.

"Oh, Lils, you must be exhausted. Why don't you go have a lie down. I'll bring you some lunch." James said, kissing her cheek and pushing her towards the castle.

"Turkey *yawn* sandwich?" She asked. James laughed at how cute she was.

"Of course, love. Now go sleep. We're in the east guest tower, room 21." He told her and watched her stumble off tiredly towards the castle.

At 11:58 the group of younger students who had left earlier returned and entered the black outlined plot.

"Let's have everyone split into their units." Harry called out. Immediately six smaller groups were formed. "Okay, group leaders will now give tours around the base and point out its key features and then we'll have a quick training session before we break for lunch. Sound good?" Harry was met with nods and yeses so he turned to his group.

"Okay, Will, Owen, this will be a little different than what we practiced in the classroom, because as you see, there are trenches now." Harry hopped down into one. It came up to about mid thigh on him and would probably go up to the waists of the smaller boys. "The shrubs will add extra coverage for us, but don't rely on them. I still want shields up between bunkers and during attack maneuvers. Understand?" He asked. The two boys nodded. Hannah was walking with them, but was a silent observer from the back as Harry described some of the traps around.

When they came to the trees they stopped again. "Alright, notice we have the two pine trees and the two willows. Remember, we're going to key you into the willows, but you still have to be careful. They still may accidently hit you while going for someone else. The two pines will hold our air unit. It's our job to help keep incoming fire away from those two trees, okay?" Will and Owen nodded seriously, looking at their general. They felt very proud that they had been chosen to be on Harry's team, but they also knew it would mean having the most responsibility on them.

Hannah spoke up then. "Do you remember that Harry isn't going to be with us tomorrow?" They nodded and Harry grimaced at the reminder. "We decided that we are going to bring in Susan from counter-intelligence and move terry to her place temporarily, from her spot in the strategy unit. Your job won't change. Just treat Susan as you would Harry. Okay?"

"Sure." They said together. Harry called everyone over to the Willows then.

"Okay, place a hand on the tree. Don't worry, it's still stunned." Once everyone had a hand on the tree trunk, Harry cast the spell to key them in. Then they did the same thing with the other willow. By now it was 12:45 and Harry's stomach was growling. "Alright, forget about training for now, I'm starved. Let's go grab some lunch and take a break. We can come back to practice a little tonight before dinner." With that there were cheers and the whole group began walking back towards the castle. When they looked around at the other houses, they noticed that they were all making one defensive wall right in the middle of their plot. Harry shook his head at their predictability and continued the march up to the castle.

"Potter!" Snape called out, bringing their group to a halt. "Lunch is being brought down here today, since everyone will need the full time to work on their fortresses.

"But we're done." Harry stated.

"Done? You've only been working for a couple hours." Snape said disbelievingly. "And most of your team wasn't even there." He added, looking around at the first and second years who seemed to be hiding behind the older students. Even some of the sixth and seventh years were looking uneasy with a confrontation including Snape. Harry just shrugged.

"Well, we're done, so we'll take our lunch up at school if that's okay."

"That will be fine, Harry." Dumbledore said, joining Snape. "Your father just went up a little while ago. If you'd like to visit them, I believe they are in the East guest tower, along with your parents, Neville. Rooms 21 and 25, I believe." Harry had thought his parents were coming in this evening, so at this news he quickened his pace up to the school.


	13. GO!

**A/N Hey thanks for the reviews. Tundry the son of Hades asked about something and I just wanted to clarify that point. The Six Lot are training for the upcoming battle against the Dark Lord and the deatheaters. The grenades and all that jazz are for that battle. They don't really need to train for the tournament beyond the planning they did for groups and bunkers and such. I just want to clear up that confusion. They are not using the muggle weapons on the other students. Now, on with the story…**

Chapter 12

The Six Lot ran up the stairs to the guest tower eager to see their parents and surrogate parents. Harry in particular was anxious to get an update from his father. They came to room 21 first and Harry knocked on the door.

"Harry!" James said grabbing his son in a hug when he opened the door. Taking in the others he gave out hugs to them as well. "Your mother and I are having lunch with Frank and Alice right now. Come on in." They followed James into the room to find Lily wearing lounge pants and a t-shirt and sitting at the table with the Longbottoms. Neville immediately moved to hug his parents, while Harry went over to his mother.

"Hey mum? Did you just wake up?" Harry asked taking in her appearance.

"I just got off a long shift at work, so I took a nap."

"I like your pants, did you get those at Madame Malkin's?" Ginny asked, taking up the seat next to Lily. The girls had always gotten along well with her as both the potters were still quite young. They had Harry straight out of Hogwarts, unlike most of their peers who waited a few years.

"Actually no, they're from Gabriella's." Lily responded a slight blush forming on her cheeks.

"Aww, mum! Merlin! You shouldn't be shopping there!" Harry complained as Ginny, Hermione, and Luna giggled. Gabriella's was a well known lingerie store in Diagon Alley. It was warded against underage witches and wizards, although this was mainly a publicity stunt to make the store seem more forbidden.

"I didn't know that store sold something with so much fabric." Ron said under his breath to Neville, who laughed. Harry punched him in the arm.

"Actually, James got these for me. They have a whole line of lounge wear. They're so comfortable, too." Lily said stubbornly fighting the blush that threatened to creep back onto her cheeks.

"Alright, leave her alone. Let's have lunch." James said taking the other seat next to his wife and grabbing a couple sandwiches from the tray in the middle of the table. Ron grabbed five sandwiches, but put back two reluctantly when Hermione cuffed him on the head.

"It seems you and Luna are the only ones left without partners to contend with." Frank said to his son. Unfortunately Neville couldn't respond because he was chomping on sandwiches and glancing anxiously towards the clock.

"Neville, slow down. What's your hurry?" Alice said, reprimanding her son for bad table manners. It was Harry who answered her.

"I'm afraid that what Mr. Longbottom said isn't entirely true. Neville's rushing so that he can meet Hannah by the lakes after lunch." He said with a smirk. Neville glared at Harry, before gulping down the last of his sandwich.

"Who's Hannah? Have we met her?" Alice asked, leaning over her husband towards her son curiously. Neville gulped again.

"Erm, no, I don't think so." He said, still shooting glares at Harry who was stifling his laughter until Ginny hit him in the head.

"Well what's her last name?" Frank asked. By now the whole table was focused on Neville and he had turned a brilliant shade of red while trying to slide under the table from his chair.

"Abbot." Harry supplied helpfully, only to receive another smack from Ginny. He was too happy, to have the spotlight off his relationship, to feel sorry though.

"Abbot, huh. That sounds familiar." Frank said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"Isn't there a William Abbot in the Department of Commerce?" James asked aloud.

"That's right. He's part of the goblin liaison team. Tough job, that." Frank replied with admiration. It wasn't easy telling the goblins about new restrictions for Gringotts.

When lunch was over, everyone went off for a while to relax giving Harry and opportunity to speak with his parents alone.

"I heard that there were a couple more attacks on ministry officials." Harry stated bluntly. James sighed and took a seat on the couch next to Lily, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

"Yes there were, but I've told you before Harry. You need to let us do our job, while you worry about your own."

"How am I supposed to prepare for the fight against Voldemort without keeping up to date with what he's doing?" Harry protested. This was an ongoing war with his parents and Dumbledore. He always wanted to know more than they gave him.

"Harry, son, these killings are routine. As horrible as that sounds, Voldemort has been doing this for years. He keeps up regular attacks in order to perpetuate the fear of him. If he lets people calm down enough to where they can think clearly, they may just realize that he IS only human." James said, reaching over to grip Harry's shoulder. He knew this was hard on his son. Ever since he found out about the prophesy he had taken every death hard, as if it were his sole responsibility to stop Voldemort. As much as Lily claimed he got this stubbornness from James, he knew better. His poor son had gotten a double dose of stubborn selflessness and bravery from both of his parents.

"Is there nothing we can do?" He asked, from where his face was buried in his hands. Lily and James' hearts broke at the sight of their son with the world on his shoulders.

"You can train Harry. When the time comes, you'll be ready." James offered trying to reassure his son, though he knew the attempt was foolhardy. Lily got up then and moved to wrap her son in a hug, whispering soft words into his ear as he began to sob.

The Founder's Lot spent the rest of the afternoon training and preparing their team for the following day's battle. So when they awoke the next morning they felt ready. As they marched into the Great Hall they took in the changes. The room had been expanded, as it typically was for ceremonial occasions. There were two long tables added on either side of the house tables and were occupied by aurors and ministry officials who were here for the tournament. They took their seats at their normal table after waving briefly to their parents. Their smiles and comfortable demeanor caught the other students off guard. Some of them because they thought they should be nervous about the tournament, and others because it had never occurred to them that the Six Lot had parents like normal children.

After everyone had taken their seats Albus stood to address the hall.

"Good Morning, everyone! I trust you all slept well. Today is the first day of the tournament. I hope you have all remembered that morning classes are proceeding as usual. This afternoon our first match will be between Slytherin and Hufflepuff, followed by Ravenclaw and the Founder's Lot." He paused to wait for the chatter to quiet down before continuing. "As a special treat to conclude our tournament, we will be having a ball." Shrieks and groans were heard around the room. When the students had settled, Albus waved his hand to his left towards a woman who was sitting at the teacher's table.

"I believe you are all familiar with Madame Malkin. She will be here today and tomorrow to take measurements and prepare dress robes for anyone who needs them along with her assistants. You may find her set up in classroom 411 at your leisure. I believe she has also brought a supply of fine used robes that can be tailored if you so choose." The murmuring in the hall rose once more and Albus realized he was starting to lose them, especially the girls, to this news. "Now, off to classes!" He shouted with a laugh as all the students quickly left the hall.

The morning seemed to drag on forever to the students of Hogwarts. In fact, Minerva had gone so far as to remove the clock from her room to gain some form of their attention. Lunch was barely eaten as most students were anxious to get out of the castle. Only a small group of students were still in the great hall towards the end of lunch, those being the members of the Founder's Lot team. At one o'clock they gathered in the entrance hall and made their way down to the bleachers which were set up for observers. Between the two sets of bleachers were the plots of land which had already been filled with Slytherin's and Hufflepuff's structures. The two plots were only about ten meters apart, but that didn't really matter as both houses had chosen to build right in the center of their plots.

Slytherin's fortress was crudely built, but fairly sturdy. They had made a wall out of boulders and filled in any gaps with the smaller rocks. They had then added trees with an abundance of leaves around the wall to add more coverage to the top of the wall. As they had suspected, only the sixth and seventh years were able to fit behind the wall and the rest of the house was forced to stand exposed on the sides, with little but protego spells able to help them.

Hufflepuff's wall was longer, enabling more than half of their house to fit behind it, but it was not nearly as strong and it was shorter so that they were forced to duck down behind it. What killed Harry and Ron and had them laughing all the way to their seats was the placement of the trees and shrubberies which seemed to have little purpose outside of mere aesthetics, though they had to admit that the rose bushes looked lovely.

"Don't laugh at them!" Hannah huffed, crossing her arms. "Those bushes have thorns too!" She protested. Harry sobered slightly, so as not to upset his teammates.

"Of course, but really Hannah…They made a circle around them with rocks they should have been using on their wall."

"And what about the berry bushes and apple trees!" Ron added, still laughing loudly until Hermione hit him on the arm in warning.

"Well, they need to keep up their strength during battle. Food supply is important." She continued to defend, but Harry could see her resolve weaken, when the mistakes were pointed out so obviously. He decided to let the issue drop. The battle only took an hour altogether. Hufflepuff took a mainly defensive approach, while the older Slytherins barked orders, to their younger housemates, from the safety of their fortress. In the end, both sides became impatient and frustrated with the lack of change and eventually abandoned their defenses for an open battlefield attack on each other. Slytherin took the victory, though Harry thought he noticed a couple class five spells used on their side.

Dumbledore's voice came over the crowd with a sonorous charm.

"We will take a short break and return in thirty minutes for our next battle."

Harry called everyone over to him. "I have a surprise for everyone. Come with me to the Quidditch pitch." Harry led them all into the locker-rooms where there were a few boxes stacked around.

"What's this about?" Ginny asked him. He smirked back at her.

"In these boxes are our uniforms." He stated. When everyone looked at him questioningly he opened one of the boxes and pulled out a pair of cargo pants in a green and brown camouflage pattern. He tossed them to a boy on his right. "In these boxes are shirts, pants and hats. Over there there's a bucket of dirt, when you're dressed go rub some on any exposed skin. Air patrol, especially, needs this concealment." He finished before digging through the boxes and grabbing some clothes for himself before everyone else tore into them. Ten minutes later harry was standing up from packing his bag with his new uniform, since he wouldn't be wearing it today, when he felt small arms move around his waist. He turned around to find Ginny smiling up at him. She stood back allowing him to take in her appearance.

"How do I look?" She asked, spinning for him. Harry gulped nervously as he took in her appearance. Her pants hung low on her hips leaving a little skin showing at her waist. Her t-shirt was skin tight as if she'd traded with one of the first years. She had her hair pulled back in a low pony tail with her hat just a little off kilter. Overall, Harry thought she looked somewhere between adorable and damn sexy. He pulled her to him by her belt loops and grabbed her waist. One of his thumbs snuck under the waistband of her pants while the other one reached behind him into the bucket of dirt before coming up to drag a dirty finger down her nose. Before she could protest, he crashed his lips to hers.

"Mmm, Gin, you look gorgeous." He said, wiping some more dirt on her cheeks with his thumbs gently.

"I hope you plan on helping me clean this dirt off later, mister." She said coyly as she walked out of the room, swinging her hips sinfully. Harry bit his lip and raced after her, grabbing her around her waist from behind and attacking her neck with kisses. He only stopped when he heard a throat clearing and looked up to find the rest of his team staring at them.

"Err, uh…yeah." He started.

"Give him a minute guys, his head's a little foggy." Neville said, laughing while the others joined in. Shaking his head Harry released Ginny and moved over to where the now empty boxes sat. He pushed one aside and retrieved a smaller box. Opening it he removed a rainbow of armbands.

He tied a black armband around his right bicep before speaking. "Each unit has a different color. Unit one, black; two, red; three, green; four, purple; five, yellow; and six, blue. Any questions before we head out there?" No one spoke, so Harry waved them out after having passed out the colored bands. When they got to the field, the appropriate plots were in place. They still had about ten minutes until they would start, so Harry called his friends to him.

"Shall we?" They nodded and each took their usual place in the circle. Grabbing each other's hands they closed their eyes and began their meditation routine. The rest of their team just shuffled around making sure everything was in place, while their leaders were incapacitated.

"Oi! What the heck are they doing?!" A Slytherin shouted from his place in the crowds.

"Hey! Look at the freaks! Bunch of wusses!" Another student yelled from somewhere else and was greeted with laughter. The rest of the founder's Lot moved over towards their leaders, sensing that they might need protection, but they had only just finished forming a protective circle around them when Harry tapped Susan on the shoulder.

"I appreciate your concern, but we're fine. Thank you." He said before each of the six called their groups over to them for last minute instructions.

"Mr. Potter, it's time to start. You'll have to take your seat, with the other students now." Dumbledore said, putting both his hands on Harry's shoulders. Harry sighed, before wishing his team luck and moving off to the side.

For the first time Harry was able to really examine the Ravenclaw defenses. He had caught glimpses yesterday and today, but didn't have time to look at it in depth. Now he could see that their design was fairly unique. Like the others they had made a wall out of the boulders, but in front of the wall there were four pillars created out of the smaller rocks that could easily fit two people behind them. They also had some trees arranged around the wall, and shrubs on either side of the rock pillars. Not a bad layout, Harry thought. He supposed that's why they were the smartest house in Hogwarts. He wondered if they would be clever enough to deal with problems that arose when things didn't go as planned.

Madame Hooch gave the signal to begin and the Ravenclaws made the first attack. People popped up from all over sending stunners and other spells towards their plot, but the few that made it to their targets were blocked easily by shields. While this took place, Luna had moved her field unit up to the aggressive attack bunker. With their shields in place she and Anthony shot two well placed blasting hexes knocking the two middle rock pillars apart and scattering the four students behind them. At the same time, Ginny's unit was picking off exposed Ravenclaws from above. The ground patrol unit was skirting in between the two field units and the strategy and intel units in the back, reporting changes and new information. Apparently Ron had gotten the okay from counter-intel to move into the double-down maneuver because ground patrol had moved Luna back and the field units were firing from both sides. It wasn't long before Ravenclaw's defenses crumbled and the students left had little option but to engage them in a full attack. Unfortunately, as they moved over the treacherous traps lad out before them, few made it as far as the aggressive bunker. Those who tripped on rocks were quickly incarcerated by ropes, while others fell victim to unnoticeable holes in the ground.

Ron pulled the back units forward and soon they had the rest of the Ravenclaws either, stunned, petrified or tied up. The entire battle took about twenty minutes. Dumbledore announced the end of the match to a silent crowd. The other houses were looking upon the Founder's Lot with faces of awe, fear, and disgust, while the ministry officials merely seemed speechless and disbelieving. Harry rushed out to his team and collided with a redheaded fury who leapt upon him, causing them both to crash to the ground.

"We did it!" Ginny shrieked excitedly, grabbing Harry's face with both hands and planting a kiss on him. Ron helped them both up, laughing at his sister, who was still bouncing in excitement.

"Congratulations! Enjoy your night and remember we have tomorrow off!" Harry stated loudly so that everyone could hear him. His team cheered and started to disperse. Seeing that their leaders wanted some time to themselves, the rest of the Six Lot moved off as well.

"Come on love, let's get you cleaned up." Harry breathed in Ginny's ear as he pulled her back tightly against his chest.

"That sounds lovely." Ginny purred moving her head to the side so she could kiss him. Harry nearly growled when a cough interrupted them…again!

"Well done, son." James said as Lily moved to hug her son and Ginny.

"Thanks Dad. Are you heading in for dinner?" Harry asked hopefully, and cringed when a barking laugh responded to it.

"Looking for a little alone time?" Came a voice from behind him.

"Sirius." Harry greeted flatly.

"Oh come on pup! Let an old dog have his fun. Don't I even get a hello?"

"Hi Padfoot, when did you get here?" Ginny asked in place of Harry, smiling at his obvious annoyance.

"This afternoon. I was part of the disillusioned guard on Ravenclaw's side, actually. You nearly bloody hit me with the rocks you blasted apart!" He said, the grin on his face being replaced by a grimace at the memory.

"Shouldn't you two be heading in for dinner also?" Lily asked concernedly.

"We were just going to take a quick walk around the lake, mum." Lily frowned at the innocent face Harry was giving her. After so many years, she knew better than to trust that face.

"Mhmm, well don't be too long. You'll need time to clean up before dinner." She said before pushing James in front of her and pulling an unwilling Sirius behind her.

Ginny turned around in Harry's arms and planted a kiss on him.

"Finally." She sighed, tucking her head under his chin.

As they began walking around the lake hand in hand, Ginny spoke up.

"Do you ever wish we could be older." She asked while kicking a stone along the ground in front of her.

"All the time." Harry sighed and then smiled down at her. He stopped her for a minute and took both of her hands in his. "Some day Ginny, when this is all over, we're going to get a house somewhere in the country where it's quiet, and peaceful. Then we're going to have a bunch of babies and live happily ever after." Despite the sappiness of his pronouncement, Ginny could see the love and hope in his eyes and couldn't help but reach up and kiss him at that moment, tangling her fingers in his hair and pulling him closer as if she would never let go.

"Harry," She said, catching her breath when they broke apart, "Will you go to the ball with me?" She tried to keep her face serious, but a smile was sneaking out.

Harry laughed. "Aren't I supposed to ask you that?"

"Why? Cause I'm the witch, I can't ask?" She said pretending to be annoyed and placing her hands on her hips. Harry held up his hands defensively.

"Of course you can!" He laughed giving her a peck. "So when will you pick me up?" He smirked.

"Is that a yes?" She smiled, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Yes. But I want a white corsage." He said pulling her closer to him.

"Shut up, Potter." Ginny whispered before crashing her lips to his.

A few minutes later they began heading back to the castle. They wanted to shower and get fitted for their dress robes before dinner.

When they reached room 411 about thirty minutes later Ron, Neville and Luna were all being measured, along with about five other students. Hermione was looking through fabrics.

"Hey Neville, when are you going to ask Hannah to the dance?" Ron asked.

"I don't know, maybe at dinner?" He said, wincing as the young assistant poked him with a pin.

"Who are you going to go with Luna?" Ginny asked, worried about her friend.

Luna was stepping down from her box having finished the measuring stage and moving over towards Hermione.

"I'm not sure. I suppose I can't ask Daniel to come." She sighed.

"You can always just come along with us, Luna." Harry offered. He looked over to Ginny to make sure it was okay with her. She nodded her agreement.

"Thanks, but I don't want to intrude. Maybe someone will ask me." She stated dreamily, not really paying attention anymore as she looked through the fabrics. Harry shrugged and moved to stand on the open platform to be measured. Ginny took Ron's spot when he was done.

After he was measured, Harry moved over to the fabrics with Ginny and picked up a red velvet type fabric. Ginny gasped and ripped it from his hand.

"No! Absolutely not!" Harry frowned.

"But I like that color, and it's soft." He complained. Ginny rolled her eyes.

"Nope, it'll clash with my hair; besides, I'm wearing green, and so are you. Here, take this." Ginny said handing him a piece of emerald fabric that felt like satin. Harry actually liked it, but he wasn't about to give in that easy.

"Why do you get to choose the color?" He asked. Ginny snorted.

"Because you have no fashion sense." Harry stuck his tongue out at her, but he couldn't really disagree. She did pick out most of his clothes and the last dress robes he had were chosen by his mother. Ginny stood up and moved over to Madame Malkin who was taking down orders. Hermione had just finished putting in her own order along with Ron's.

"I want this style dress and this fabric, but can you get rid of the sleeves and make the straps go around my neck so it's backless?"

"Of course, dear. That'll look lovely." Ginny smiled.

"And Harry's going to get the traditional four piece robes, with the necktie instead of the bowtie in these fabrics. Could you also make a set in black, with the bowtie?"

"Why do I need…?" Harry started to ask, but Ginny shushed him.

"Do you want that tie in black or white?" Madame Malkin asked, taking notes.

"Hmm, what do you think Harry?" Ginny asked turning to him.

"Oh, now I get a say? Well, then, I say black."

"We'll take it in white please." Ginny stated smiling at her boyfriend.

"Hey!" Harry pouted. Ron came up beside him then.

"Let it go mate. It's for the best. Besides, it's time for dinner!"

They walked into the Great Hall and Neville separated to go speak with Hannah. They had only just reached their table when Anthony came over and took Neville's normal seat. After greeting everyone he turned his focus on Luna.

"Hey Luna, I was wondering, I know you are sort of seeing that Daniel guy and I've got a muggle girlfriend at home…What do you think about going to the ball with me as friends?" Luna smiled and nodded.

"That would be wonderful Anthony. Thank you." He smiled at her and then got back up just as Neville was returning. When they passed each other, Harry thought he heard Anthony thank Neville for the tip and grinned. Neville retook his seat.

"So?" Hermione asked as she and Ginny leaned in for the new gossip.

"I asked her." Neville said, grabbing a turkey leg for his plate. Ginny rolled her eyes and threw a roll at him.

"Uh, no kidding. What did she say!" She exclaimed in excitement.

"Oh she said yes." Neville admitted trying to act coolly, but the grin splitting his face broke the façade. Hermione and Ginny squealed and Luna smiled happily.

"Well done mate." Ron offered while Harry slapped him on the back.

"Alright, now that everything is settled. What do you all want to do tomorrow, since we have the afternoon off?" Harry asked.

"You mean we aren't going to train for Wednesday?" Hermione asked shocked.

Harry smiled. "I think we'll be fine, and everyone deserves a day off. I'm not a tyrant, you know!" He said when everyone still stared at him in disbelief. Ginny was the first to recover and grinned.

"Well, everyone is going to be down at the battles. It would be the perfect opportunity for a little mischief." Harry grinned at his girlfriend and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

"I like the way you think Feelie." He stated looking around at the smiles on his friend's faces. Oh yeah, tomorrow would be fun.


	14. picking out uncomfortable situations

**A/N Alright, so here's the deal. I've had this written for a while, but I'm completely stuck on the next part of the tournament, so I figured I might as well post what I have and just continue it in the next chapter. Since I didn't get a single review for the last chapter, I'm a little worried everyone either stopped reading or just really hated what I wrote, which is part of the reason I'm having such a hard time writing the next part. Anyway, I hope you like this little snipit. Hopefully I'll have another chapter for you soon. **

Chapter 13

"I don't know mate, this seems awfully mean." Neville chuckled.

"Yeah, plus there's no way to key us into it and I don't fancy being a victim of your jinx, even if you did test it." Ron stated. Harry laughed.

"That's true, but knowing what will happen before hand, you can take certain measures to prevent anything from happening." Harry smirked at his friends who looked at each other in disbelief.

"You can't be serious!" Ron exclaimed.

"I'm not, that's my Godfather." Harry chuckled and Neville and Ron both groaned.

"What's with you two?" Ginny asked as she returned from the other side of the hall with Hermione and Luna.

"Harry made a serious/Sirius joke. I thought we escaped those when we got away from Padfoot." Ron stated, moving unconsciously to stand next to Hermione.

The girls all groaned. "Harry!" Ginny exclaimed. He just grinned.

"I couldn't pass it up!" He defended, as he took Ginny's hand and led the group back to their dorms.

When they entered their common room Hermione and Ron claimed a couch while Neville took the chair opposite Luna in front of the fire. Harry took the open seat on the couch and pulled Ginny into his lap. The weariness on their faces was evident and it didn't take long for the friends to trudge off to bed a couple at a time.

"Shall we head to bed then?" Harry asked after Ron and Hermione had said their goodnights.

"What time is it Harry?" Ginny asked into his chest where she was cuddled.

"12:27."

"Hmm, and the date is?" Ginny asked slyly. Harry couldn't help but laugh. She had no faith in his memory, so they did this every year.

"I know what today is, Gin."

"Oh?" She said pulling her head away to look up into his face. "And what is that?"

"It's our anniversary." Harry stated proudly, glad that he could prove to her that he remembered on his own.

"Of what?" Ginny asked, raising an eyebrow challengingly. Harry's jaw dropped and he began to sputter. He knew it wasn't their dating anniversary because that was in August. This one was the one his mother had always pointed out, even when they were little, "their special day."

"Oh, er, umm, when we met?" Harry meant to state it, but it came out as a question. Ginny laughed at Harry's face. It was a mixture of curiosity and fear.

"It's okay Harry. I didn't know what it was of either. I finally asked my mum last year and she told me. I can't believe we've been celebrating this forever and never knew why?"

"All I knew is that your mum made cake for dessert. Now, are you going to tell me what we're celebrating?" Harry asked.

"Apparently, this day celebrates the first time you summoned me into your crib and our parents knew there was something weird about us." Ginny said smiling up at Harry. A grin spread across his face and he leaned over to give her a kiss.

"So do you think we'll still get cake, now that we're at school?" Harry asked smirking. Ginny rolled her eyes and swatted his arm.

"I don't know about cake, but I do have something to celebrate it." Ginny said crawling off of Harry's lap and pulling something from underneath the couch. It was a thin package, but still rather large, and was covered in wrapping paper. Harry looked at her questioningly. "It's nothing really. I just had our mums help me put it together. Here." She said holding it out for him to take. Harry held the package gingerly, unsure of whether it was fragile or not. "Go on, Harry, open it." Ginny urged. Needing no further encouragement, he tore into the paper revealing a wooden frame, within which was a collection of four pictures. Harry looked between Ginny and the pictures, not knowing what to say. "Well do you like it?" Ginny asked as she nervously bit her bottom lip.

"I love it!" Harry reassured her. The first picture was of a black haired baby cuddling a slightly smaller redheaded baby in a crib, a stuffed snitch lay forgotten beside them, as they slept, breathing softly. The next picture was of Harry and Ginny when they were around five and six. It was taken when James and Lily had taken the whole group of them to a Muggle park. Harry was sitting at the top of a slide with Ginny sitting in front of him between his legs. Both of them were grinning madly and waving at the camera. The third picture, right below the first, was of Harry and Ginny the first year of their training. They were sitting on the edge of the dock with their legs dangling in the water. Every so often they would look back at the camera and smile. Harry laughed as he noticed Ron dunking Neville in the background. The final picture was taken over Christmas holiday. Ginny was sitting on the couch with Harry lying next to her, his head in her lap. Their faces were glowing in the firelight as Ginny played with Harry's hair as he dozed. Occasionally, Harry would open his eyes, they would smile at each other, and Ginny would lean down to peck him on the lips.

"Who took that last picture?" Harry asked. He remembered exactly when that was, but he was to absorbed in the feel of Ginny's fingers in his hair that he couldn't recall seeing anyone take a picture.

"I'm not sure, actually. It was probably your mum. She loves taking pictures of things like that." That was true. Lily loved pictures. They had dozens of albums full at home. In fact, there was a whole album just documenting Harry's first broom. Most of the pictures in it were of a baby Harry zooming across the frame with James running after him. Occasionally, you would see Sirius laughing in the background.

"This is really great, Ginny. Thank you." Harry said giving her a kiss and pulling her closer into his side. "Let's go hang it over the bed." He said standing and holding out a hand to help her up. She took it grinning and proceeded to pull him up the stairs.

Harry groaned as the morning light hit his eyes. It seemed that the older he got, the harder it was to get up for these early morning workouts. When he was younger he would be up at six anyway, so it didn't seem early. He yawned and stretched his feet and arms. There was a motion next to him and he turned his head to see Ginny wrapped up in a ball. Harry smiled. She always curled into herself when they separated in sleep. He nudged her gently and heard her mumble. Neville walked by them on his way to the bathroom and waved to Harry as he yawned. As he passed Ron's bed he threw a shoe at him.

"WAZ GOIN' ON?!" Ron said shooting up in bed. Then he looked at the clock on his nightstand and groaned before pulling back his covers and going to find some clothes. Ron's wakening caused Ginny to sleepily open her eyes to see what was happening.

"What time is it Harry?" She asked as she clutched her pillow and snuggled back into it.

"5:45." His answer was met with a moan and Ginny burrowed further under the covers. He couldn't help but chuckle at his adorable girlfriend and playfully swatted the raised bump under the covers as he climbed out of bed. Ginny squeeked and threw back the covers to glare at him. Just then there was a knock on their door. "Come in!" Harry called.

Hermione and Luna entered, already dressed for their workout and proceeded to follow the routine which had become regular the past couple weeks, when Ginny refused to get up in the mornings. Each of them grabbing an arm, they half-carried, half-dragged Ginny back to their own dorm. As was typical, by the time they arrived, Ginny had given up and accepted her early-morning fate and began to change.

"Really Ginny, you get worse every morning. I think you need to get more sleep or something. Maybe you're staying up too late." Hermione pondered aloud.

"Maybe we should move these to the afternoon so they aren't so bloody early." Ginny grumbled.

Five minutes later the girls were in the common room when the boys came down the stairs arguing. Harry was grinning, while the other two seemed somewhere between shock and disgust.

"It's not right, mate." Ron protested.

"Maybe so, but you'll wish you weren't so restricted later."

"What's going on?" Hermione asked, interrupting their squabble. Ron started to speak, but Harry beat him to it.

"I'm going commando today." This was met with the same looks of disgust from Ron and Neville, and a gasp from Hermione. Luna seemed unconcerned. Of course Harry noticed none of this, as he had eyes for only one person, and she raised an eyebrow at him as her face broke into a smirk. Ginny's brown eyes glinted as she moved from her place leaning on the couch over to Harry's side, wrapping her arm around his waist.

She leaned up to whisper in his ear, "Great minds think alike." Harry grinned as he looked down at her and she gave him a wink.

"Is that necessary? I mean, you can just do the counter-spell." Hermione said, but Harry just shrugged and started walking to the door.

"It's a five mile run today and then individual weight training. Let's go." Harry called over his shoulder to the four following behind them. He decided to take it easy on them, so they could enjoy the day off.

An hour and a half later they were walking into breakfast, freshly showered. Ginny and Harry walked straight in as normal, while Ron, Hermione, Luna and Neville all muttered a spell under their breath with a grimace before continuing towards their table.

Looking around the hall, it was easy to see that the wedgie jinx was effectively wreaking havoc on the poor students of Hogwarts. Many were shifting uncomfortably in their seats while other, less patient students, took the bold step to try and relieve themselves. Unfortunately, they would find that their attempts were futile and would remain so for quite some time.

Harry spotted Draco Malfoy out of the corner of his eye stand from his table to leave and glancing to his sides, before inching his arm behind him.

"Watch this." Harry whispered quickly and cast a spell across the room. Suddenly, the hall was filled with a loud fart, which reverberated off the walls and everyone turned to face Draco, who was caught in a precarious situation. His hand was behind him in mid-pick as he pulled on his trousers. The blonde Slytherin froze and a blush crept up his face until he was a very dark crimson. It only took a moment until the hall burst into laughter and Draco fled the hall glaring at everyone he passed. Once the hall quieted down, a group of people approached their table. James, Sirius, and Remus, led by Albus stopped right next to Harry.

"Hello." Harry said, his face all innocence.

"Good Morning Harry." Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling. "I'm afraid I have a bit of a situation this morning. You see, I'm finding my under-things more intrusive than usual."

Harry held back a very girlish giggle at the Headmasters statement and answered with a composed face.

"I'm sorry to hear that sir, but may I ask why you are telling me this?"

"Come off it pup! This has your name written all over it." Sirius said his face somewhere between amusement and discomfort.

"What's the counter-jinx?" James added. Harry looked around to his friends who seemed a bit anxious under the watchful gaze of their mentors.

"Have you tried Finite Incantatum?" Ginny supplied, her face betraying nothing but serious concern.

"You know very well, that this is a revised version of the normal spell. The person who made the adjustments made an alternative counter as well." James stated, now becoming more annoyed.

Harry sat with his finger on his chin as if deeply in thought.

"HARRY JAMES POTTER, You tell us this instant!" Lily said, coming up to join her husband. Harry sunk low into his seat and Ginny giggled at his show of submission.

"Immunity?" Harry asked in a soft voice to Professor Dumbledore.

"Seeing as no one was harmed, I believe that can be arranged." Albus said, his eyes twinkling even more. Then looking at Harry's mother, he added, "But I can make no such promises where your parents are concerned."

"Eximo Pardus" Harry told them and watched as they all whispered the spell and visibly relaxed. He couldn't hold in the chuckle that escaped him and took on the full glare of his mother.

"You're as bad as your father, sometimes!" She said throwing her hands up and stomping back to their table. Harry and James exchanged smirks before their two groups separated.

The Six Lot spent the rest of their day enjoying the sun down by the lake. Harry even managed to get a house elf to bring them out a picnic lunch. So the day progressed with little excitement after breakfast, but the relaxation and time alone was just what they needed.


	15. Battling enemies and friends

**A/N Thanks for the encouraging reviews. I'm glad to know that people are actually reading this still. Also just a WARNING, there is some talk about sex at the end of this chapter, but it's mostly innuendo, nothing explicit. Thanks!**

Chapter 14

When lunch rolled around the next day people were far calmer than they had been the first two days of the tournament. The Six Lot were definitely pleased with the quieter atmosphere and enjoyed chatting with their teammates, who had taken to eating with them regularly now.

Harry had just grabbed a second treacle tart when Dumbledore rose from his chair.

"Good afternoon, everyone. Just a reminder that the battles today will be Gryffindor and the Founder's Lot first, followed by Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. The first one will commence in thirty minutes, so please finish your meals and make your way down to the fields." Albus finished to loud chatter filling the hall. Poor Hufflepuff, Harry thought. They had all four of their battles consecutively, and tomorrow they would face his team. After yesterday's face off with Gryffindor, their defensive structures were nearly non-existent.

"Are you excited for your first battle, Harry?" Hannah asked from her place next to Neville. Harry shrugged.

"I guess so. It'll be more fun than sitting on the sidelines anyway." Harry said, standing from his seat and stretching his arms over his head. His camouflage shirt pulled up revealing his six packs and a 'V' created by his hip bones leading into the low slung pants he was wearing. Ginny licked her lips as she took in her boyfriend's form.

Harry laughed as he noticed Ginny's dazed look and bent down to whisper in her ear. "Like what you see?" Ginny jolted in her seat as his warm breath hit the skin behind her ear. Knowing that he was teasing her, she quickly collected herself and smiled up at him, letting her eyes rove over him suggestively.

"Mhmm." She purred, pulling his head down to hers for a passionate kiss.

"HEY!" Ron yelled.

"Yeah, let's try and keep it rated G around the kids." Hermione added, but unlike Ron she was smiling. Harry and Ginny broke apart and saw Daisy giggling with Mary and Patty down the table. Ginny smirked as Harry blushed, ducking his head sheepishly.

After a few more teasing comments, the Founder's lot made their way down to the battlegrounds and began assessing any damage to their lot, of which there was little. After quickly rubbing some dirt on themselves, the Six Lot formed their normal meditative circle.

"Maybe we shouldn't do this Harry. It caused such a spectacle last time." Hermione said glancing around at the curious faces already staring at them.

Harry shook his head. "No. Each of these battles will help us hone our concentration. I think following our routine is important." His tone brooking no argument. Apparently Ginny ignored that fact.

"Perhaps we can compromise. Let's meditate before leaving the castle next time, that way we keep up our routine and avoid the attention." She caught Harry's eye and quickly added, "If you think that's reasonable." Harry took a deep breath and nodded, closing his eyes and holding out his hands for Ginny and Luna to grab on either side of him.

The noise of the crowd was quickly pushed away as he retreated into his mind. A few minutes later he opened his eyes and took in each of his friends. They were more relaxed today. It was obvious in each of their faces. They felt a bit uneasy being without their leader last time, but now each held a look of determination and focus.

"Let's do this." Harry said quietly, rising from his place on the ground. His other teammates hadn't formed a protective circle this time, but were lingering in the area around them, alert to any danger.

Ginny took his hand in hers and led the way to the front of their lot, to where her tree was. "Will you give me a lift?" She asked turning to face Harry when they reached the bottom of the tall pine.

"Of course." Harry said with a small smile. "But first…" He moved his hands to her waist and pulled her into him tightly, leaning his forehead against hers. "Be careful, Gin." He said softly, gazing into her eyes.

"You too." She said before closing the inch between them in a loving kiss. When they broke apart, Harry removed his wand, though he didn't need it, and levitated her carefully onto a high sturdy branch. Ginny blew him a kiss before he turned and moved over to his group.

None of the other groups had moved into position yet, but were a few feet away discussing strategy.

"…brave, and dangerous because of it." Neville was saying when Harry joined them.

"What's going on?" Harry asked.

"We're discussing tactics. Neville is concerned that the Gryffindor's bravery and pride will make them a more aggressive opponent." Ron explained.

"If that's the case, it may be best to take a more defensive strategy and wait for them to come to us." Harry suggested. Ron looked ill at ease. "I know you don't like the sitting duck approach, but in this case it may work in our favor."

"They may be brave and no one should underestimate their intelligence in a fight, but they are also foolish and quick to act. Their impatience will surely be their downfall, if we can keep our own at bay." Ben piped up wisely. Ron still looked unsure, so Harry decided to take the reins more strongly.

"It's settled. We hold our units in defensive maneuver five to force the full attack." Harry stated firmly, daring Ron to complain. Ron kept his mouth closed and nodded once before taking his team back to their bunker. As the other units began to disperse Harry looked to his own team. Will and Owen looked nervous, but determined, while Hannah seemed deep in thought.

"Is it wise to leave the aggressive bunker unguarded? With no shield, we may lose it to stray spells." Harry contemplated Hannah's words for a moment before calling Hermione's troop over.

"What's up?" Susan asked curiously.

"Hannah brought up a good point…" Harry smiled over at Hannah who blushed at the attention. "I want your unit in the aggressive bunker, for shielding." He said. Quelling any protests, he added, "As much as I appreciate your work in the back, under this strategy I don't think counter-intelligence will be necessary and I'd rather keep our defenses intact for the upcoming battles." He finished, and with only a curt nod Hermione moved her unit to the front. He thought about moving Ron's team, but Hermione's had greater offensive strength, overall, than Ron's did.

"Alright, we need to get into position." Harry said quickly ushering his team towards their bunker. Harry used the last few minutes before the start to take in Gryffindor's structure. It was the only one he hadn't seen in great detail yet. To say it was strange would be an understatement in his opinion.

Right next to each other were two large triangle walls, each with the tip about six feet in the air. It was different, he'd give them that, but they seemed more likely to fall on them than protect them. Without his intelligence unit he'd have to figure it out himself.

Without another thought he sent a patronus up to Ginny and a moment later her response returned. "There is a large boulder behind each triangle and they have a few people standing on them near the top." Well that would make them slightly more sturdy, he supposed. He quickly passed this information on to the field unit who moved to tell the others just as the Headmaster gave the starting signal.

Neither team made a move at first, both waiting to see what the other would do. Of course, the Founder's Lot had no intention of making any moves for a while, except for the air unit that conscientiously picked off stray targets from above. They were slowly, but effectively lessening their numbers. The crowd was growing restless and began demanding action. This seemed to spur Gryffindor on and Harry saw fifty or so people pop out from the sides of the two triangles. They hadn't coordinated their attack well enough so that the spells were launched at the same time, but their aim was true and immediately shields were brought up to deflect them.

It wasn't a particularly exciting battle, and more than once Harry had to give a stern look to Ron who was itching to move. After ten failed attempts at trying to get spells past their shields, the Gryffindor's were quickly realizing a more aggressive approach that could break up their carefully protected units might be for effective. It was quiet for a moment and then chaos broke out as the Gryffindor's charged the Founder's Lot. Harry held up his hand, holding back his troops until the Gryffindor's were nearly upon them.

"GO!" With Harry's command they were moving, crashing upon the Gryffindors like a wave, just as they began to navigate the treacherous traps laid out before the aggressive bunker. With shielders on either side of him and Hannah, Harry was able to take out ten of the lions in under a minute. If he'd been able to use wandless magic he could have doubled that number, easily.

"BLUE TEAM ASSIST!" Harry called over the fray, bringing in Ron's unit from the back. Ron didn't need any more encouragement. He motioned his team forward, hastily dodging a branch from the willow that was swiping three Gryffindors away.

"Split up. Terry and John go with Ben. Peter come with me." Ron quickly directed. Normally they would stay together, but he could see Hermione's team was becoming overrun at the front and didn't want to waste time getting there. It would be easier for him to move with just one shielder. He passed Anthony and Luna's team. They were all on their stomachs, taking out opponents legs through the bushes. He noticed one Gryffindor sneaking around the back and shot a quick stunner at him before moving on.

Harry's team was a little further ahead, not really a surprise, since Harry loved to get right into the thick of it. Will and Owen had sweat dripping down their faces as their shaking hands tried to hold up the shield that was now in constant use. Harry was shooting glances at the pair worriedly while still taking down lions left and right. The Gryffindors were definitely concentrating their efforts on Harry's group. Ron glanced ahead and saw he was only five feet from the bubble that was Hermione's group shield.

"Peter, go help the Black Team shielders."

"But…" The small boy was obviously confused. He was told to never abandon his teammates.

"NOW!" Ron urged and shoved the boy in the right direction. Another wand would help relieve some of the stress on the other two boys. With a dive and a roll, Ron came up right between Hermione and Susan.

"RON!" Hermione shrieked, looking around. "Where's your team!"

"There assistance was needed elsewhere." He replied shortly, already shooting hexes into the surrounding throng. The Gryffindors' weakened numbers were starting to show as their attack thinned out. With the Air Patrol picking them off from above and Harry basically going on a rampage below, they never really stood a chance.

Unfortunately, one hot headed Gryffindor seemed to have enough and made a move to tackle Harry. Without missing a beat in his stunners, Harry moved his arm to block the attack which threw the boy to the ground. Hannah quickly stunned him before rejoining the shielders. She had taken up the role of a fourth shielder when it became obvious most of the attackers were directing their spells at them and Harry hardly needed her help offensively.

Even with the constant hex exchange, the battle wasn't very exciting for Harry, or any of the other Six Lot members for that matter. It was really just a matter of shooting ducks in a barrel. The shields they used, as long as they remained strong, didn't let anything below a class four spell through them. Harry almost considered losing the shielders and having a bit more fun, but thought showing off probably wouldn't look very good. Besides, if this were a real battle, he'd never take that chance.

A few more minutes of carefully aimed spells and the ground was littered with unconscious or indisposed Gryffindors. Harry really admired their spirit. They fought until the very end, even when their fate was obvious. Many would have surrendered when backed into a corner, with your numbers down to three, but those last three lions put up a hell of a fight, Harry thought. He hoped he had that much courage if it came down to it in the real battles.

The crowd was silent as Harry and Neville helped get the air unit down. They recognized that they had just watched a slaughter, and didn't particularly care to think what would happen to them. The Hufflepuffs, especially seemed uncomfortable as they watched the, nearly completely untouched house leave the field.

The only sound was Dumbledore announcing the winner and the younger kids on Harry's team celebrating. Harry came up between Will and Owen who were slapping hands happily, though a bit weary. He clapped them both on the shoulders and smiled at them proudly.

"Well done, today. You were taking a lot of hits, but you didn't give up. Thanks." He said before falling back to where Ginny was talking with some of the older girls. He wrapped an arm around her waist and kissed the side of her head as she listened to Hannah.

"It would be so much fun, and we really never get to hang out much besides our practices and stuff. Please!"

"What's she begging about?" Harry asked Ron who was just behind him walking with Hermione.

"She wants to have a girls sleepover."

"Oh." Harry looked down at Ginny and noted that she was looking anxiously at her feet.

"Come on Ginny! Hermione and Luna already said yes!" Susan added.

"I'm just not sure I…" Harry knew what the problem was, because it was on his mind as well. He suspected that this sleepover wouldn't be taking place anywhere near his bed, and they had never slept apart. Ginny looked up at him, her eyes sad. He knew she wanted to have fun with the girls. He leant down to her ear and whispered to her, causing a bright smile to split across her face.

"You're brilliant, Harry! I love you!" She said, pulling her face to his and kissing him all over in her excitement. Hannah and Susan were giggling and even Daphne seemed amused.

"Honestly Gin, it's no big deal. I'm surprised you didn't think of it yourself."

Just then their group was accosted by parents.

"That was fantastic Harry!" James beamed as he ran up to them, but then turned serious, taking Harry's shoulder. "But I'm worried about you weakening yourself. You need to use more area hexes to take out multiple opponents."

Harry frowned. "I would have in a normal fight, but most of those are high level spells and I don't particularly care to hurt any of them by accident with the less controlled ones."

"Right you are! This is only a game, after all." Lily said, sending a glare to her husband who was looking a bit sheepish. Albus joined them now after attending to the Gryffindors and making sure everyone was okay.

"Harry, I must address the rule violation. You were not allowed to use physical defense…" Dumbledore started seriously and Harry gaped.

"YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS! HE ATTACKED ME!" Harry yelled in disbelief mingled with disgust.

"HARRY JAMES POTTER! YOU WILL NOT SPEAK TO THE HEADMASTER IN THAT TONE!" Lily reproached, holding her finger at him sternly.

Before anymore could be said Albus cut back in. "If I may be so bold as to finish my statement…" He gazed down at Harry over his half-moon spectacles, and the boy had the grace to look a bit ashamed at his outburst. "I was merely going to apologize for not considering this situation when I imposed the rule on you. I never considered a member of the other houses taking a more physical approach, but I will address this oversight directly." Harry nodded abashedly and refused to look up at the headmaster.

"Harry, I believe you owe your Great Uncle an apology." James stated. Harry knew he was only saying it to regain some of his points with Lily.

"I offer my sincerest apologies Headmaster, I lost my head." He stated, still examining his feet.

Albus chuckled softly and clapped Harry on the shoulder.

"No harm done, my boy." Still laughing to himself as he moved to intercept some other teachers on their way to readjust the lots for the next battle.

"So your done for the day, huh?" James asked conversationally.

"Yep. Are you working the next battle?" Ginny answered, before Harry could.

James nodded and turned to his wife.

"I think I'll stick around and watch the next show down before dinner." She said and they both waved goodbye as the group of friends started back towards the castle.

When they were out of parental hearing distance, Hannah and Susan started right back up.

"You know, Marcie Rogers' brother's friend dated Ms. Romerta and he gave her two bottles of firewhiskey. I bet if we asked her she'd let us have one. She doesn't even like to drink much." Susan said and Hannah bounced excitedly.

"I never took you two for the drinking type." Harry noted and Susan stuck her tongue out.

"Everyone thinks Puffs are goody-goodies, but we know how to have fun just like everyone else."

"Besides, I heard it's not too bad if you mix it with pumpkin juice." Hannah added helpfully, looking to Neville for his reaction. He just smiled at her.

"Hmm, I'm not sure it's a good idea." Harry said seriously and Susan snorted.

"Who needs your permission?" She said defiantly before Hannah nudged her and she noticed Hermione, Luna, and Ginny were all looking at Harry for his opinion. She quickly shut her mouth and watched the exchange curiously. Harry acted as if he hadn't heard her comment and was staring ahead contemplatively.

"We'll be careful." Ginny promised. She was eager to try the beverage. It made Sirius, James, and Lupin act really goofy and their faces scrunched up when they sipped it. Her mother had, of course, forbidden her from ever trying it, but James had once snuck Harry a sip when Lily wasn't around. He told her that he didn't care for it, but she was curious to try it for herself.

Harry sighed as he took in the curious and eager faces of his girlfriend and friends. Finally he relented. "If you're careful…"he eyed Ginny, "I don't see a problem." The girls cheered. "However, just remember that we still have workouts in the morning whether you're hung over or not. And for every glass you drink, you run an extra mile." The girls groaned. Tomorrow was the usual ten mile run, unlike their day off. Even so, Ginny thought it would be worth it.

"Geez, Harry! You drive a hard bargain." Hannah piped up. Harry smiled devilishly.

"Well since we're at school now, it's my responsibility to make sure we all stay in shape. If Sirius were here it'd be five miles per glass, so they're getting off easy." This last sentence was more a reminder to his unhappy friends than an explanation, and they nodded in agreement with its truth.

When they finally reached the castle, Hannah, Susan, and Daphne went back to their dorms to shower and collect their things. They were going to come over before dinner and drop it off at the Founder's dorm.

Ginny, Hermione and Luna broke away at the staircases and followed it up to their dorm. As they undressed for the showers, Hermione asked the question she and Luna had been pondering since Ginny agreed to the sleepover.

"So what are you and Harry going to do tonight?" She asked casually, throwing her soiled shirt into the hamper by her bed.

"We're going to play it by ear most of the night. He may need to join us for a bit if the itching becomes painful, but I think we'll be okay."

"And sleeping?" Luna asked.

"The same as usual. I'll just join him once the other girls are settled for the night." Ginny stated grabbing her towel as she headed for the bathroom.

"You know they're going to ask you about it tonight, right?" Hermione said, a slight smirk on her face.

"Of course I know! They've been itching to get information out of me for a while, but it's not just Harry and I they're curious about." Ginny countered and Hermione's face fell. Luna laughed.

"They can ask me what they like. I haven't got much to tell from a physical stand point…yet." She added cheekily, scurrying into the bathroom after Ginny when Hermione flicked her towel at her rear.

Meanwhile, Neville and Ron were asking Harry similar questions.

"We're just going to have to see how it goes. If it gets bad, I'll just have to be one of the girls for a while, I suppose." Harry smirked as the boys laughed. "Then tonight she's just going to come in after they go to sleep."

"You know they're going to be asking questions about you and her. Especially if they find out you're sleeping in the same bed every night." Ron noted, tugging his shirt which had gotten stuck at his neck.

"Yeah, I know. That's just what girls do. Can't do much about it." Harry said, shrugging. "Hopefully, yours and Neville's relationships will distract them for a little while." He added grinning at his friends. Neville and Ron both blushed scarlet and looked away, only making Harry laugh louder as he made his way into the showers.

Twenty minutes later the girls descended the stairs into the common room where Harry, Ron and Neville were already waiting.

"They aren't here yet?" Ginny asked looking around.

"Well if they take as long as you guys do getting ready and add on packing and travel time, I wouldn't expect them to be." Harry said with a chuckle and Ginny smacked his arm playfully. He mock pouted before surprising Ginny and pulling her over the couch into his lap, as she squealed. Her legs were still flung over the back of the couch as he tickled her relentlessly. Neither of them heard the knock at the door, nor noticed when Hermione let in Susan and Hannah. But they did hear the giggling. Harry stopped his attack and looked up to see both girls covering their mouths as they laughed, their eyes wide as they took in the scene before them.

Great, Harry thought, as if they needed more fuel for their interrogations. Ginny would have been thinking the same if she wasn't still trying to catch her breath from being tickled.

"Just ignore them. We do." Ron said, smirking at his sister and friend. Harry scowled at him in return. Harry grabbed Ginny beneath her arms and pulled her the rest of the way onto his lap so she was straddling him and they were facing each other.

Ginny looked up into his green eyes and found herself lost, once again missing the entrance of another person.

"What's wrong with them?" The new addition asked, taking in the pair on the couch, who appeared oblivious to the world.

Neville rolled his eyes and threw a pillow at them, effectively breaking their eye-lock.

"Oh, is it time for dinner?" Ginny asked, jumping off Harry's lap. Then, taking in the new person in the room, she exclaimed, "Daphne! When did you get here?"

"Just now. And no it's not dinner time yet." The tall girl responded, shooting a glance at Hannah and Susan who were still giggling and now whispering to each other.

The friends spent the next couple hours discussing school work and the tournament before heading down for dinner. When they returned the boys were quickly ushered away. Neville and Ron chose to have a chess tournament up in their dorm and immediately withdrew from the room. Harry was a little harder to get rid of.

"Have fun, Gin. I'll be just upstairs if you need me." He whispered to her as she hugged him tightly at the bottom of the stairwell. She finally stepped back, but kept hold of his hand tethering herself to him until the last possible moment. Hermione finally came and pulled her away, a look of amused irritation on her face. Harry looked pained as he made his way up the stairs. It wasn't letting her go, but the thought of being away from her for most of the night that made him reluctant to leave. At least it was a school night, so they wouldn't stay up too late, he reassured himself.

Ginny also felt the immediate withdrawl symptoms, and she had to take a deep breath and push them away as she slapped a smile on her face for her friends.

"You guys are like attached at the hip or something?" Susan remarked. Ginny just nodded, taking her seat.

"Well, I suggest we kick this off on a happy note!" She said, pulling a bottle of Firewhiskey from her satchel. Susan retrieved a bottle of pumpkin juice from her own and Hermione conjured six small glasses.

"I'll have mine straight." Daphne proclaimed, her face void of emotion. They had come to realize that their friend wasn't very expressive, but she was kind when she wanted to be and had a good sense of humor. Hannah poured her a glass, within which Daphne conjured two ice cubes. Hannah and Susan began making the other five glasses mixed, but Ginny held up her hand.

"I'll have mine straight as well." She said confidently. Daphne held up her glass and nodded approvingly at the younger girl. Once everyone had a full glass in their hands they held them up.

"Cheers!" Susan said before they each took a sip. This was followed by a round of coughing, except for Daphne who smiled and took another sip of her drink.

"Maybe it's best to go in one?" Hannah suggested, before tipping the glass back and downing the beverage. Her eyes were wide and teary, but she smiled at them, proud of herself. Susan, Luna, and Hermione followed her example with similar results, but Ginny could barely stand to sip it, much less drink it all at once.

"Another?" Susan asked, her voice rough from the burn in her throat. Hermione waved her away.

"One was plenty for me. I don't much care to add on any more miles to my run tomorrow either." She stated, pushing her glass away. Luna nodded her agreement. Susan shrugged and poured another each for her and Hannah, this time, with a bit more pumpkin juice. After their second glass both girls were giggling incessantly and clutching each other to balance.

"Hey, how about we play a game?" Daphne asked, still as cool and collected as ever, though she was now half way through her second drink.

"Like what?" Hannah asked between giggles.

"Truth or Dare." Daphne suggested.

"I thought that was a muggle game." Hermione asked, wondering how Daphne knew of it. She scoffed.

"Hardly! They don't even play it correctly. It's supposed to be, do a dare or face six questions from your friends. Normally you play with veritaserum, but we'll just go by the honor system." The Slytherin explained. "We play in my dorm all the time. You'd be surprised by some of Pansy's secrets." She said with a small smile.

"Alright, I'm in!" Susan proclaimed.

"Me too!" Hannah added, sloshing her drink as she pulled her knees beneath her. The rest of the girls agreed as well and Daphne decided that she would go first since it was her idea.

"Okay. Luna. I dare you to strip down to your knickers and run into the boys dorm. Do you accept?" Daphne asked the blonde across from her. She felt a unexplainable kinship with the strange girl, so decided to go easy on her.

Luna nodded and stood, quickly undressing to Hannah and Susan's wild giggles. Once she was down to her under things she strode over to the stairs and up into the boys dorm. They expected to hear screams or something, but there was silence. All the girls ran up the stairs and peered around the door into the room where they found Luna, sitting in her knickers on the bed, watching Harry and Ron staring contemplatively at the chess board in front of them. Neville was watching from another bed, across from Luna.

Ginny and Hermione snickered at the shocked faces of their friends and they called Luna back out to them.

"Did they even notice?!" Susan exclaimed disbelieving.

"Sure, they just didn't care." Luna said casually starting to put her clothes back on.

"Why?" Daphne asked, showing more emotion than usual as she looked aghast between the door to the boys room and Luna.

"We grew up together. It's just not a big deal." Ginny shrugged.

"Since you're already undressed Luna, why don't we change into our night things and get more comfortable before we continue." Hermione suggest. The girls all agreed and moved upstairs to use the bathroom and change.

"Where's Hermione?" Hannah asked as she joined the other girls outside the bathroom, noting the aforementioned girl was not with the others by Ginny's bed.

"She's downstairs moving around furniture so we have room to sleep." Luna explained and then led the way back downstairs. Hermione was just conjuring the last sleeping bag when they arrived.

"How come there's only five?" Daphne asked, ever the observant one. Hermione's eyes widened at her mistake and she shot Ginny an apologetic look. Ginny sighed.

"Because I'm not going to sleep down here." She admitted, plopping down on the chair, Hermione had left close by just for her.

"How come?" Susan asked, frowning.

"She has a bad back. She can't sleep on the floor." Luna put in, but the other girls were unconvinced.

"She's never mentioned it before. Why don't you just conjure a mattress then?" Hannah said. There was tension in the room as the three other girls realized they were being kept out of some secret the Founder's Lot clearly knew. Ginny shared a glance with Luna and Hermione before giving up. They were going to ask about her anyway, she supposed it wouldn't be much worse if she told them this.

"I always sleep with Harry. I can't sleep away from him." She said softly, but met their eyes confidently, daring them to comment. But of course they did.

Hannah and Susan squealed and Daphne had a mild look of surprise on her face, which spoke volumes for her.

"I can't believe you're sleeping with Harry!" Susan squealed.

"I can." Hannah added and they both broke into giggles. Ginny gasped at their wrong assumption.

"What?! No! I sleep with him, but I'm not _sleeping_ with him!" She exclaimed. This was met by surprised and disbelieving faces from all around, including Luna and Hermione.

"You aren't?" Hermione asked.

"NO!"

"Huh." Luna added, looking at her friend as if assessing whether she was being truthful.

"I would have told you if I was!" Probably, she added to herself.

"Sorry, Ginny, we just assumed." Hermione said.

"So you're not shagging him, but you sleep in his bed every night?" Daphne asked, clarifying the situation.

"Yes." Ginny said, burying her face in her hands as her cheeks blazed with embarrassment. Being the good friend she is, Luna diverted their attention.

"It's my turn and I pick Susan." The girl in question immediately sobered and looked warily over at Luna. "I dare you to write a love note to Professor Dumbledore, confessing your love for him." Susan paled. She hated doing the truth part though, and figured the Headmaster probably wouldn't even read it…hopefully.

"Fine. Give me some parchment." She ordered. Hermione grabbed her a piece from the table in the corner and she clumsily began writing the note. She finished her signature with a flourish and called for an owl, sending it off to the headmaster's office. "There. Done." With a predatory smile on her face she turned to Ginny, who was quietly sitting in her chair, itching her forearm.

"I pick Ginny." She smirked as the young girl's head flew up, her eyes fearful. "I dare you to go a whole day without touching Harry." Susan smiled. There was no way Ginny would do this dare, they couldn't keep their hands off each other. But that's exactly what she wanted.

Ginny gasped and began itching more furiously at the thought of it. Hermione sat on the arm of her chair, rubbing her back to calm her. Ginny looked up at her pleadingly. "Sorry, Ginny. You'll just have to do the questions." Hermione said, looking down at her friend. Ginny nodded and swallowed nervously.

"I'll t-t-take the questions." She stuttered, pulling her knees up in front of her and hugging them to her chest. Susan squealed happily and turned to Hannah to conference. Daphne listened feigning disinterest, but she was curious about the couple as well.

"Alright, first question. Have you ever seen Harry naked?" Susan asked. Ginny laughed loudly and Hermione and Luna joined in. "What?" Susan questioned indignantly. She hardly thought it was something to laugh at.

"Sorry, but we've all seen Harry naked." Ginny laughed gesturing to Hermione and Luna. "He went through this phase when he was about seven where he refused to wear clothes for a whole week." Ginny laughed at the memories. Lily was constantly chasing him around trying to get him in something, but as soon as she did he'd strip right back out of it. He wasn't even embarrassed about it now. He said it was the freest he'd ever felt.

This answer was obviously unsatisfactory and Susan huffed. "okay, have you seen him naked in the past year?" She inquired.

"That counts as your second question." Ginny pointed out.

"What? But that first one wasn't even interesting." Ginny shrugged. "Fine." Susan said, crossing her arms. "Answer the question."

"Sure I have." She said casually. Hannah, Susan and Daphne all leaned forward to hear the rest. "uh, that's it."

"You're not going to elaborate?!" Hannah asked annoyed.

"I'm only obligated to answer your questions, and I did. Next." Ginny stated dismissively. The girls huffed unhappily.

"You're a tricky one." Daphne said and Ginny wasn't sure if she was praising her or cursing her. Being a Slytherin, she assumed it was a compliment, so she smiled.

Hannah asked the next question. "Is he a good kisser?" Ginny's eyes glazed over.

"Mmhmm, the best." She said, still looking dazed. Her tongue darted out to wet her lips subconsciously.

"But I think she's a bit biased." Hermione added, rolling her eyes.

"How big is he?" Daphne asked, without an ounce of embarrassment coloring her face. Ginny gaped and Susan and Hannah gasped before falling into another fit of giggles. "Oh come on. Everyone wanted to know, but I was the only one woman enough to ask." Daphne said, returning her penetrating gaze to Ginny who was hiding behind her knees, her face a bright scarlet.

"I'm not sure I should tell. It's really his privacy I would be breaking." She mumbled.

"If he's got nothing to be embarrassed about, he won't care." Daphne urged, obviously intent on getting her answer.

"Maybe you can just hold up your hands, to show." Luna suggested, thinking this would be easier for Ginny than actually speaking. She mumbled something else, but they didn't catch it. Sighing she held up her hands about a half of a foot apart, then looked at the distance critically for a moment and added another inch and a half to it.

Daphne didn't speak, but raised her eyebrows in surprise while Hannah and Susan just gaped at the space between her hands as if the man-piece in question was actually there. After holding her hands in place for a second, Ginny put them down and blushed even darker.

"He's grown a bit since he was seven then." Luna commented casually from where she was propped up on her elbow on top of the sleeping bag. Hermione looked over to Luna and they shared a smirk.

"Two more questions." Hermione announced, bringing the attention back to the game. Ginny wasn't sure whether to glare at her for that reminder or be happy that they weren't thinking about her boyfriends parts anymore.

"Okay. You said you haven't gone _all the way_, so how far have you gone?" Susan asked. This was a question Hermione and Luna were curious about as well. Ginny and Harry would go off on their own from time to time and come back a bit flushed, with their clothes in disarray. Even when they were still at Potter Manor, they had begun sneaking off together when the adults were occupied, plus they had a room to themselves there.

Ginny looked up to find five eager faces looking at her and she sighed. She didn't understand why girls felt the need to divulge every little thing about their relationships. She, personally, preferred to keep some things private. Sure, Hermione and Luna badgered her during their girl talks, but they usually didn't get this…open about it.

"I'm not sure, what you mean?" She said bashfully.

Hannah decided to help make it easier for her. "Well use the quidditch analogy. Are you at the low hoop, the middle hoop, or the high hoop. We already know you haven't let him catch the snitch." Ginny, Hermione, and Luna looked at her queerily. They'd never heard of that analogy.

"What do you guys live under a rock or something?" Susan asked incredulously.

"Something." Ginny said, sharing a glance with the other two.

"Okay, I'll explain." Susan stated when Hannah started blushing at the idea of describing them. "It's like this: the hoop height corresponds to a place on your body. The highest hoop is your mouth, so if you've only kissed, you say that one. The middle hoop is your chest, so if you've let him feel you up, you say that one. The lowest hoop is, well…below the belt." At this everyone blushed, except Daphne who rolled her eyes. "So if you've…well you get the idea." Susan finished. Ginny looked pained as she considered her options. She didn't want to answer and on top of it all, the itching was becoming much worse.

"I, um, three?" She said, not entirely sure if she had picked the correct one.

"The lowest hoop?" Daphne clarified, with something akin to a smirk on her face. Ginny nodded slowly before burying her face in her knees while the other girls screamed. The boy's dorm opened, causing all of the girls to look up. Harry was standing on the landing, rubbing his arms, his face showing the pain he was beginning to feel. He looked at Ginny and she nodded, holding up her arms for him to come to her.

He raced down the stairs, with a book in his hand and quickly picked up Ginny sitting her in his lap. Both of them sighed as the itching and pain diminished immediately.

"Umm, Ginny. Why is Harry here?" Hannah asked somewhere between annoyed and embarrassed.

"Uhh…" Ginny looked around for help, unsure how to answer.

"Don't worry about me, ladies. Just pretend I'm not even here." Harry said smiling as he popped in the earphone of his ipod and opened his book, ignoring what was going on around him. Thank goodness his mother was muggleborn. She knew about electronics and how to fix them so they worked around magic. Ginny shifted onto the floor between Harry's legs, wrapping an arm around each. She was hoping that she could direct their eyesight lower so they'd forget about Harry, but Susan and Hannah were still gaping at him. This caused for drastic measures.

"So I have one more question left!" She nearly yelled to gain their attention. They seemed to snap out of it and looked at Ginny, but still shot fleeting glances at Harry, who was too absorbed in his book to notice.

"Seriously, what's wrong with you two?" Daphne asked, but she was inspecting her nails, seemingly indifferent.

"Is, um, that the question?" Ginny asked nervously biting her bottom lip.

"No!" Susan said. "Okay, last question is…Are you going to marry Harry, one day?" The question was pretty mild given the other ones and Ginny sighed in relief.

She cast a quick glance at the boy over her shoulder to make sure he wasn't paying attention before she whispered.

"I hope so. I'd marry him tomorrow if I had the chance." She beamed around at her friends as they 'awwed' and said how cute it was. Even Daphne smiled a little. "Alright, I'm done. Now I get to pick!" Ginny was rubbing her hands together grinning mischievously as she decided on her victim. Before she could announce her decision there was a tapping on the window.

Hermione got up to let the owl in and took the parchment from its leg.

"It's for you Susan." She chuckled, recognizing the Headmaster's scrawl.

"Read it out loud!" Hannah exclaimed, bouncing excitedly. Susan carefully slid her finger under the wax seal and unfolded the parchment.

"Dear Ms. Bones, Thank you for those lovely sentiments. Unfortunately, I fear I must steer your heart away from me, but I hope we will remain good friends. Sincerely, Albus Dumbledore." She paused for a moment to let the giggling pass before continuing. "P.S. I hope your game of truth and dare does not last too late into the evening, as I remind you, we have classes in the morning."

"He knew!" Susan gasped before they all broke into laughter again. When they had calmed down Ginny turned to Daphne.

"Alright, miss 'I'm so smooth,' you talk big, but I dare you to list any boys you've slept with." If Daphne was surprised or anxious, she didn't show it.

"I believe you just dared me a truth." She stated. Ginny nodded grinning. "You're very sneaky. I think you should have been a Slytherin." She pronounced.

"Answer the question." Ginny challenged. Daphne shrugged.

"I have none to list. It is improper for a pureblood witch to taint herself before marriage. It weakens the dowry and hurts her chances of a good match." She stated without hesitation. "However, practice, is not discouraged." She added with a gleam in her eyes. Ginny laughed while the other girls gaped.

"I suppose, I get to choose again." Daphne looked between Hermione and Hannah, the only two left to go. Luna stifled a yawn and laid back on her sleeping bag.

"I suggest we combine your dares, if you accept, so that we can call it a night. I do need some sleep to function, after all." Daphne suggested. The other girls were feeling tired also, after the battle today, especially, so they agreed. Daphne looked between Hermione and Hannah, contemplatively. "Alright, well it's hardly a daring task, but I dare you to kiss each other tomorrow, at breakfast, in front of everyone." Hermione and Hannah gasped and looked at each other. "It can't be a weak kiss either."

"But what about Ron and Neville?" Hermione asked.

"Somehow, I don't think they'll mind." Daphne drawled before pulling her sleeping bag over her.

Ginny turned around to Harry and poked him in the ribs.

"Hey!" he shouted indignantly.

"Shhhh." Ginny said, standing and pulling him up from his chair. Harry stood and stretched, setting his book down and yawning.

"Bedtime?" He asked quietly, pulling his earbuds out. Ginny nodded and pulled him towards the boy's stairs.

"Sleep tight, Ginny." Susan called before she and Hannah broke into giggles again. Ginny rolled her eyes and continued on.

Ginny jumped into Harry's bed while he quickly changed and brushed his teeth in the bathroom. When he came out he slid under the covers behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her tightly to him.

"So how bad was the inquisition?" He whispered in her ear. She sighed.

"Pretty bad, but I kept details to a minimum where possible."

"Mhmm." Harry said softly, gently laying kisses behind her ear. She sighed again, leaning more so he could reach her neck. "So you'd marry me tomorrow huh?" He purred in her ear. Ginny turned in his arms, as she gasped.

"Harry James Potter!" She whisper yelled at him. "You _were_ listening! I knew it!" She hit him lightly on the arm. Harry just grinned at her and leaned in to kiss her.

When they finally broke apart, Harry couldn't resist it. "Daphne sounds like a real minx, but I can't say I'm not looking forward to her dare tomorrow." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Harry!" Ginny giggled, hitting him on the chest.

"I'd like it better if you were in on it." He whispered to her in a low voice, his emerald eyes dark.

"Oh yeah?" Ginny purred right back.

"Yeah." He agreed kissing her again.

"Keep dreaming, sweetheart." Ginny patting his cheek teasingly. She chuckled at his shocked face. Then his surprise turned into a smirk.

"That sounds like a good idea. I will dream about it." Harry said closing his eyes. Ginny just smiled and turned back around so she fit into him, falling asleep in the next minute.


End file.
